Investigation of UV exposure in adhesively bonded single lap joints

Adhesively bonded joints are being widely used in the fabrication process of aircraft and automobile structures. Surface roughness is an important parameter of product quality that strongly affects the performance of mechanical parts, as wel as production costs. This parameter highly influences the mechanical properties overall of such structures. The effects of UV radiation on the single lap joints manufactured with different types of surface preparation and temperature were examined before and after UV exposure. Sandblasting, sanding and chemical cleaning were used as surface preparation and two test temperatures were used for investigation, 25 and 115?°C. The results of those tests showed that surface preparation highly influences shear strength, but does not affect the stiffness of the tested joints. Temperature also influences the shear strength and stiffness. UV radiation contributes to increase shear strength and do not degrade the tested single lap joints.