Effects of the curing pressure on the torsional fatigue characteristics of adhesively bonded joints

경화 압력이 접착 조인트의 비틀림 피로 특성에 미치는 영향

Adhesive joints have been widely used for fastening thin adherends because they can distribute the load over a larger area than mechanical joints, require no hole, add very little weight to the structure and have superior fatigue resistance. However, the fatigue characteristics of adhesive joints are much affected by applied pressure during curing operation because actual curing temperature is changed by applied pressure and the adhesion characteristics of adhesives are very sensitive to manufacturing conditions. In this study, cure monitoring and torsional fatigue tests of adhesive joints with an epoxy adhesive were performed in order to investigate the effects of the applied pressure during curing operation. From the experiments, it was found that the actual curing temperature increased as the applied pressure increased, which increased residual thermal stress in the adhesive layer. Therefore, the fatigue life decreased as the applied pressure increased because the mean stress during fatigue tests increased due to the residual thermal stress.