Determination of the behavior of metal-metal adhesively bonded joints under static and dynamic loads

Adhesive joints are frequently used in many industries today. The most important of these are aerospace, automotive, marine and construction industries. With the developing material technology, the necessity of bonding different types of materials has been emerged. Adhesives were gained an important position for composite-metal, polymer-metal or metal-metal connections. These developments pave the way for research on adhesive strength. In this study, adhesively bonded joints made by using 2024-T3 aluminum material and DP490 structural epoxy adhesive from 3M company were investigated under static and dynamic loads. Static tests were consisting of tensile tests performed at low tensile speeds. The effects of different mechanical surface treatments and adhesive thickness on joint strength were investigated by using tensile and shear specimens. An experimental test setup was designed to examine the dynamic load conditions. This experimental setup is basically a slider-crank mechanism which is driven by a servo motor. Extension springs attached to the fixed side of the mechanism apply a variable load to the adhesively bonded joint with the motor action. The fatigue behavior of bonded joints was investigated by using extension springs with different spring coefficients.