Effect of Mechanical Surface Treatment on the Static Strength of Adhesive Lap Joints

This work deals with an experimental investigation on the effect of mechanical surface treatments of adhesive bonded joints. The behaviour of an adhesively bonded joint can be considered good if cohesive failure is achieved, while when interfacial failure occurs the performances are normally much worse. A key parameter which drives the failure type is the surface treatment applied to the adherends. This work analyzes, by means of a structured experimental campaign, which surface mechanical treatment gives the best performance. The design of the experimental approach used involves different materials, joint geometries, and surface treatments. The results are investigated in terms of force, energy, and stresses in the joints and the performance of the several mechanical treatments tested is assessed, showing that a simple correlation with the surface roughness is not sufficient to predict the best joint performances. The reliable results obtained prove that sandpapering or sandblasting the adherends gives a strong improvement in terms of performance and leads to a higher probability of cohesive failure.