Adhesive Joints Under Impacting Shock Wave Loading

Many engineering structures, in applications such as automobiles, bridges, etc. are assembled by joining the different parts together. Therefore, joints in the mechanical applications play a critical role in durability, flexibility of the mechanical assemblies. Recent advances in adhesive technology have made adhesive joining one of the plausible options in many engineering applications that demand high impact resistance such as ground vehicle armor or civilian vehicles. However, because most of the polymer-based adhesives have non-linear mechanical behavior and loading rate sensitivity caused by their viscoelastic properties, characterization of the adhesives under different loading and environmental conditions become vital in the design of durable and reliable joints in any structure. This study investigated the mode I (bending) response of the adhesive joints to shock-wave loading generated in a large-scale shock tube. The critical failure pressure (P5) of adhesive joints was determined experimentally. Determining the material properties of the adhesive were estimated by the FEM parametric study, and energy absorption capacity of the adhesive joints under different strain rate loadings were investigated.