Abstract:

Composite joints are used in many industries such as aerospace, army, automotive, and marine because of their light, durable and corrosion-resistant properties. Composite joints can be made by applying different methods using elements such as adhesives, rivets, bolts, and nuts. Considering the lightness of a product, the most preferred connection type is adhesive joints. In most structures with adhesively bonded composite joints, weight is avoided to reduce energy consumption. In this study, fiber-reinforced thermoset plastics were manufactured as adherend, and two different adhesives were used, one of them has ductile, and the other has brittle properties. Holes were drilled on adhesively bonded single lap joints at different locations to investigate the mechanical effect of adhesives and adherend. The preferred specimen material was epoxy-infused e-glass fiber laminate manufactured using the vacuum infusion method. Tensile tests were performed on drilled, adhesively bonded joints. The force-elongation curves were generated and compared to each other depending on the positions of the drilled holes. The failure force of the samples with holes drilled in the middle of the bonded area was observed to be higher than those with holes drilled at the edge.

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