Investigation of Adhesively Bonded Multi-Material Joints: An Assessment on Joint Efficiency and Fracture Morphology

Abstract

The efficient and economic structures are high in demand in various firms due to the requirement of lightweight, a feasible joining of similar/dissimilar materials, safety and high durability. Adhesively bonded multi-material joints are coming into use in various structural applications due to the potential utilization of the merits of individual constituents. This research work provides the importance of adhesively bonded joints with different material combinations, which in turn were investigated experimentally. The present paper involves joining of tin as metal and glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) as composite resulting in combinations as GFRP-GFRP, GFRP-Metal, and Metal-Metal Single lap joints (SLJs). The experimental results indicated that GFRP-GFRP SLJ exhibited the highest lap joint efficiency, followed by GFRP-Metal and Metal-Metal SLJs. The fracture surfaces of SLJs revealed that there was a combination of cohesive and adhesive failures