Laser treatment surface: An innovative method to increase the adhesive bonding of ENF joints in CFRP

Recently, many studies showed the opportunity to use a CO2 laser for treating the surfaces for structural bonding. In this work, a study on the effectiveness of a laser texturing on ENF bonded joints made with CFRP and epoxy adhesive has been developed. The experimental results showed that the use of this technology allows obtaining mechanical resistances of the bonded joints higher than 80% compared to untreated ones. Furthermore, a numerical model is proposed to forecast the response of the ENF specimens, and the numerical results are in good agreement with the experimental ones. This work represents a basis for the development of an innovative approach to design the laser texturing as a function of the applied stress.