TWI Industrial Member Report Summary 438/1991
By G C McGrath
Background
Research into adhesive technology applications has been strongly motivated by the desire to improve the range of assembly methods for the developing material market. This has resulted in the use of adhesively bonded joints for many novel and often demanding structures. The demands of these structures are varied and diverse, ranging from the repair of motorway bridges to microelectronics. Many of these applications demand a resistance to fatigue loading.
A review of application potentials for the different adhesives is presented in this report. This needs to be considered with respect to the adhesive type, and a review of the main adhesive types is also presented. However, despite the requirement for predicting and understanding fatigue behaviour, little work has been carried out on the adhesively bonded joints. This report initiates a programme of research to examine promising techniques for understanding the influence of fatigue loads upon the adhesively bonded joint.