Mechanical behavior of UV-cured composite stepped lap adhesive joints
Date
2023-04-18
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
SAMPE Conference Proceedings 2023
Abstract
Joints often control the design of composite structures because they represent locations of high stress concentrations. Adhesive joints offer several benefits over mechanically fastened connections such as reduced stress concentrations, and higher joint efficiency. This study evaluates the performance of stepped lap adhesive joints. The novelty lies in the implementation of UV-cured vinyl ester resin which allows integration of co-cured stepped lap joints in applications where fast curing at ambient temperatures is required. The experimental program consisted of a series of tensile tests on 20-ply 7781 E-glass laminates integrating UV-cured stepped lap joints, where the primary variables were stepped lap joint angle (ranging from 0.9° to 5.7°) and number of ply drops (ranging from 1 to 10). Physical properties of all the UV-cured joint panels, such as density, void content, fiber volume fraction, and hardness, were also evaluated and compared between the test groups. The preliminary findings indicate that reducing the scarf angle from 5.7° to 0.9° increased the joint strength by a maximum of 115%. The joint strength efficiency approached 100% of the laminate tensile strength for 19-step joints having a scarf angle of 0.9º.
Description
This article was originally published in SAMPE Conference Proceedings. Seattle, WA, April 17-20, 2023. Society for the Advancement of Material and Process
Engineering – North America. The version of record is available at: https://doi.org/10.33599/nasampe/s.23.0243. © Copyright 2023. Used by the Society of the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering with permission.
Keywords
stepped lap joint, scarf angle, ply drop, UV-cure, joint strength
Citation
Shenton Iii, H., J. Gillespie Jr., J. Tatar, and S. Das. “Mechanical Behavior of UV-Cured Composite Stepped Lap Adhesive Joints.” In SAMPE Conference Proceedings 2023. Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering – North America, 2023. https://doi.org/10.33599/nasampe/s.23.0243.