Mechanical behaviour and failure modes of metal to composite adhesive joints for nautical applications

In this paper, the influence of several parameters on the mechanical behaviour and failure modes of hybrid bonded joints aluminium/composite was investigated. Particularly, the effects of metallic surface condition, adhesive properties and thickness on single-lap joint resistance were analysed. To these aims, two adhesives were used and, for each adhesive, two different adhesive thicknesses (0.5 and 1.5 mm) have been investigated. Furthermore, two sets of joints for each adhesive kind and thickness were investigated: the former was obtained using aluminium blanks which were previously mechanically treated with sandpaper (P60) and the latter using aluminium treated with sandpaper and with presence of fillets in the ends of the overlap area. In order to improve the adhesion strength between polymeric adhesive and aluminium, two metal surface treatments have also been performed using a silane coupling agent, γ-glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane (γ- GPS). The mechanical performances and failure modes were found to be significantly increased using the chemical pre-treatments with γ-GPS silane coupling agent unlike other parameters investigated. As regard the thickness of the adhesive layer, the better value is found to be equal to 0.5 mm, for both adhesives investigated.