Investigations on the influence of nano reinforcement on strength of adhesively bonded joints

This paper aims to study the effect of adding nano reinforcement on load bearing capacity and shear strength of glass epoxy composite joints bonded by a two-component structural acrylic adhesive. SiC nanoparticles having diameter in the range of 25-40 nm were used to reinforce epoxy adhesive. Nanocomposite adhesives having 0.1, 0.25, 0.5 and 1.0 wt% of SiC nanoparticles were manufactured using in-situ polymerization technique. Results indicated that failure load of the joints having SiC nanocomposite adhesive was higher than that of joint with neat adhesive. Shear strength and load bearing capacity of single lap joints with adhesive having 0.75 wt% of nanoparticles was 38% higher than that of joints with neat adhesive. Distribution of shear stress, von-Mises stress and peel stress were also analyzed to study the effect of reinforcement in adhesive by Finite Element analysis. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.