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At least 73 records · Page 4

Rapid adhesive bonding of advanced composites and titanium

Rapid adhesive bonding (RAB) concepts utilize a toroid induction technique to heat the adhesive bond line directly. This technique was used to bond titanium overlap shear specimens with 3 advanced thermoplastic adhesives and APC-2 (graphite/PEEK) composites with PEEK film. Bond strengths equivalent to standard heated-platen press bonds were produced with large reductions in process time. RAB produced very strong bonds in APC-2 adherend specimens; the APC-2 adherends were highly resistant to delamination. Thermal cycling did not significantly affect the shear strengths of RAB titanium bonds with polyimide adhesives. A simple ultrasonic non-destructive evaluation process was found promising for evaluating bond quality.

Stein, B. A.↗

High-temperature Adhesive Development and Evaluation

High-temperature adhesive systems are evaluated for short and long-term stability at temperatures ranging from 232C to 427C. The resins selected for characterization include: NASA Langley developed polyphenylquinoxaline (PPQ), and commercially available polyimides (PI). The primary method of bond testing is single lap shear. The PPQ candidates are evaluated on 6A1-4V titanium adherends with chromic acid anodize and phosphate fluoride etch surface preparations. The remaining adhesives are evaluated on 15-5 PH stainless steel with a sulfuric acid anodize surface preparation. Preliminary data indicate that the PPQ adhesives tested have stability to 3000 hours at 450F with chromic acid anodize surface preparation. Additional studies are continuing to attempt to improve the PPQ's high-performance by formulating adhesive films with a boron filler and utilizing the phosphate fluoride surface preparation on titanium. Evaluation of the polyimide candidates on stainless-steel adherends indicates that the FM-35 (American Cyanamid), PMR-15 (U.S. Polymeric/Ferro), TRW partially fluorinated polyimide and NR 150B2S6X (DuPont) adhesives show sufficient promise to justify additional testing.

Hendricks, C. L.↗

Rapid adhesive bonding and field repair of aerospace materials

Adhesive bonding in the aerospace industry typically utilizes autoclaves or presses which have considerable thermal mass. As a consequence, the rates of heatup and cooldown of the bonded parts are limited and the total time and cost of the bonding process are often relatively high. Many of the adhesives themselves do not inherently require long processing times. Bonding could be performed rapidly if the heat was concentrated in the bond lines or at least in the adherends. Rapid Adhesive Bonding concepts are developed to utilize induction heating techniques to provide heat directly to the bond line and/or adherends without heating the entire structure, supports, and fixtures of a bonding assembly. Bonding times for specimens can be cut by a factor of 10 to 100 compared to standard press or autoclave bonding. The development of Rapid Adhesive Bonding for lap shear specimens (per ASTM D1002 and D3163), for aerospace panel or component bonding, and for field repair needs of metallic and advanced fiber reinforced polymeric-matrix composite structures is reviewed. Equipment and procedures are described for bonding and repairing thin sheets, simple geometries, and honeycomb core panels.

Stein, B. A.↗

Evaluation of a high temperature adhesive for fabricating graphite/PMR-15 polyimide structures

Tests are conducted to measure shear strength, shear modulus and flatwise tensile strength of the A7F (amide-imide modified LARC-13) adhesive system. An investigation is also conducted to determine the effect of geometric material parameters, and elevated temperature on the static strength of standard joints. Single-lap and double-lap composite joints, and single, double and step lap composite to metal joints are characterized. A series of advanced joints consisting of preformed adherends, adherends with scalloped edges and joints with hybrid interface plies are tested and compared to baseline single and double-lap designs.

Hill, S. G.↗

Mode 1 delamination growth in adhesively bonded joints under static and fatigue loads

The objective of this investigation was to characterize the pure mode 1 delamination growth in metal to metal adhesively bonded joints under static and fatigue loading conditions, using FM 73 adhesive. Double cantilever beam specimens (DCB) were used for pure mode 1 tests. Aluminum 2024-T3 adherends were bonded with FM 73 adhesive. Delamination was introduced during fabrication by inserting a Teflon film between the two adherends. The mode 1 strain energy release rate G sub I sub c was obtained directly from static DCB tests conducted in accordance with the ASTM designation D1876-12. Constant amplitude fatigue tests on DCB specimens were conducted to determine the relationship between delamination growth rate da/dN and strain energy release rate G sub I sub c for a pure mode 1 delamination growth. It is found that the debond propagation rate in adhesive joints using FM 73 is more sensitive to errors in design load than is typical crack growth rate in metallic structures.

Biswas, S. C.↗

Factors influencing elastic stresses in double cantilever beam specimens

An elastic stress analysis was conducted for a double cantilever beam (DCB) specimen using finite-element methods. The purpose of this study was to identify the important parameters that influence stresses ahead of the delamination front. The study focused on an aluminum DCB specimen, typical of adhesively-bonded joints, and on a graphite/epoxy specimen representing a cocured composite. Opening mode sigma sub y stresses ahead of the crack tip were calculated and compared with those for a monolithic reference specimen. Beyond the singularity-dominated region very near the crack tip, the sigma sub y distribution was elevated compared to the monolithic case. Both the adhesive thickness and the adherend transverse (thickness-direction) stiffness were found to influence the elevation of sigma sub y. In contrast, adherend thickness and longitudinal stiffness has very little effect on this stress distribution. Estimates for adhesive yielding beyond the aluminum DCB crack tip showed that both the area and height of the plastic zone increased to a peak value for increasing adhesive thicknesses. Results from this study would provide insight for comparing data from different DCB specimens and for designing new DCB specimens.

Crews, J. H., Jr.↗

Equipment and techniques for rapid bonding of composites

Rapid adhesive bonding concepts have been developed at NASA Langley which employ induction heating of thermoplastic composite matrices directly along the bond line and/or adherends without heating the entire structure, the supports, and the fixtures of the bonding assembly. Short term thermal cycling and water boil exposures have shown encouraging environmental stability for these rapid bonds. These bonding techniques have been extended to continuous seam bonding of metallic and composite panels with promising results for the bonding of both like and unlike adherends; the portability of the apparatus suggests that field repairs of damaged structures are possible.

Buckley, John D.↗

Factors influencing elastic stresses in double cantilever beam specimens

An elastic stress analysis was conducted for a double cantilever beam (DCB) specimen using finite-element methods. The purpose of this study was to identify the important parameters that influence stresses ahead of the delamination front. The study focused on an aluminum DCB specimen, typical of adhesively-bonded joints, and on a graphite/epoxy specimen representing a cocured composite. Opening mode sigma sub y stresses ahead of the crack tip were calculated and compared with those for a monolithic reference specimen. Beyond the singularity-dominated region very near the crack tip, the sigma sub y distribution was elevated compared to the monolithic case. Both the adhesive thickness and the adherend transverse (thickness-direction) stiffness were found to influence the elevation of sigma sub y. In contrast, adherend thickness and longitudinal stiffness has very little effect on this stress distribution. Estimates for adhesive yielding beyond the aluminum DCB crack tip showed that both the area and height of the plastic zone increased to a peak value for increasing adhesive thicknesses. Results from this study would provide insight for comparing data from different DCB specimens and for designing new DCB specimens.

Crews, J. H., Jr.↗

Comparison of the Effects of Debonds and Voids in Adhesive Joints

An analytical model is developed to compare the effects of voids an debonds on the interfacial shear stresses between the adherends and the adhesive in simple lap joints. Since the adhesive material above the debond may undergo some extension (either due to applied load or thermal expansion or both), a modified shear lag model, where the adhesive can take an extensional as well as shear deformation, is used in the analysis. The adherends take on only axial loads and act as membranes. Two coupled nondimensional differential equations are derived, and in general, five parameters govern the stress distribution in the overlap region. As expected, the major differences between the debond and the void occur for the stresses near the edge of the defect itself. Whether the defect is a debond or a void, is hardly discernible by the stresses at the overlap region. If the defect occurs precisely at or very close to either end of the overlap, however, differences of the order of 20 percent in the peak stresses can be obtained.

Rossettos, J. N.↗

Theoretical and Experimental Evaluation of the Bond Strength Under Peeling Loads

Reliable applications of adhesively bonded joints require understanding of the stress distribution along the bond-line and the stresses that are responsible for the joint failure. To properly evaluate factors affecting peel strength, effects of defects such as voids on the stress distribution in the overlap region must be understood. In this work, the peel stress distribution in a single lap joint is derived using a strength of materials approach. The bonded joint is modeled as Euler-Bernoulli beams, bonded together with an adhesive. which is modeled as an elastic foundation which can resist both peel and shear stresses. It is found that for certain adhesive and adherend geometries and properties, a central void with the size up to 50 percent of the overlap length has negligible effect on the peak peel and shear stresses. To verify the solutions obtained from the model, the problem is solved again by using the finite element method and by treating the adherends and the adhesive as elastic materials. It is found that the model used in the analysis not only predicts the correct trend for the peel stress distribution but also gives rather surprisingly close results to that of the finite element analysis. It is also found that both shear and peel stresses can be responsible for the joint performance and when a void is introduced, both of these stresses can contribute to the joint failure as the void size increases. Acoustic emission (AE) activities of aluminum-adhesive-aluminum specimens with different void sizes were monitored. The AE ringdown counts and energy were very sensitive and decreased significantly with the void size. It was observed that the AE events were shifting towards the edge of the overlap where the maximum peeling and shearing stresses were occurring as the void size increased.

Nayeb-Hashemi, Hamid↗

A Semi-Analytical Method for Determining the Energy Release Rate of Cracks in Adhesively-Bonded Single-Lap Composite Joints

A semi-analytical method for determining the strain energy release rate due to a prescribed interface crack in an adhesively-bonded, single-lap composite joint subjected to axial tension is presented. The field equations in terms of displacements within the joint are formulated by using first-order shear deformable, laminated plate theory together with kinematic relations and force equilibrium conditions. The stress distributions for the adherends and adhesive are determined after the appropriate boundary and loading conditions are applied and the equations for the field displacements are solved. Based on the adhesive stress distributions, the forces at the crack tip are obtained and the strain energy release rate of the crack is determined by using the virtual crack closure technique (VCCT). Additionally, the test specimen geometry from both the ASTM D3165 and D1002 test standards are utilized during the derivation of the field equations in order to correlate analytical models with future test results. The system of second-order differential field equations is solved to provide the adherend and adhesive stress response using the symbolic computation tool, Maple 9. Finite element analyses using J-integral as well as VCCT were performed to verify the developed analytical model. The finite element analyses were conducted using the commercial finite element analysis software ABAQUS. The results determined using the analytical method correlated well with the results from the finite element analyses.

Yang, Charles↗

The Effects of Temperature, Humidity and Aircraft Fluid Exposure on T800H/3900-2 Composites Bonded with AF-555M Adhesive

Fiber reinforced resin matrix composites and structural adhesives have found increased usage on commercial and military aircraft in recent years. Due to the lack of service history of these relatively new material systems, their long-term aging performance has not been well established. In this study, single lap shear specimens (SLS) were fabricated by secondary bonding of Scotch-Weld(TradeMark) AF-555M between pre-cured adherends comprised of T800H/3900-2 uni-directional laminates. The adherends were co-cured with wet peel-ply for surface preparation. Each bond-line of the SLS specimen was measured to determine thickness and inspected visually using an optical microscope for voids. A three-year environmental aging plan for the SLS specimens at 82 C (180 F) and 85% relative humidity was initiated. SLS strengths were measured for both controls and aged specimens at room temperature and 82 C. The effect of this exposure on lap shear strength and failure modes to date is reported. In addition, the effects of water, saline water, deicing fluid, JP-5 jet fuel and hydraulic fluid on both the composite material and the adhesive bonds were investigated. The up to date results on the effects of these exposures will be discussed.

Miner, Gilda A.↗

Environmental Aging of Scotch-Weld(TradeMark) AF-555M Structural Adhesive in Composite to Composite Bonds

Fiber reinforced resin matrix composites have found increased usage in recent years. Due to the lack of service history of these relatively new material systems, their long-term aging performance is not well established. In this study, adhesive bonds were prepared by the secondary bonding of Scotch-Weld(TradeMark) AF-555M between pre-cured adherends comprised of T800H/3900-2 uni-directional laminate. The adherends were co-cured with wet peel-ply for surface preparation. Each bond-line of single-lap-shear (SLS) specimen was measured to determine thickness and inspected visually for voids. A three-year environmental aging plan for the SLS specimens at 82 C and 85% relative humidity was initiated. SLS strengths were measured for both controls and aged specimens at room temperature and 82 C. The aging results of strength retention and failure modes to date are reported.

Hou, Tan-Hung↗

Recent Advances in LIBS for Real-Time Detection of Silicone Contaminants on CFRP Surfaces

Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is a materials characterization technique that has been advanced and refined to provide in situ, real-time quality control of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) surfaces. As part of an effort to improve process control for adhesive bonding, a LIBS system was designed and assembled at NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) to enable detection of ultralow concentrations of silicone contamination on CFRP adherends. The LIBS instrument provides high sensitivity detection and quasi-nondestructive surface characterization of CFRP adherends prior to adhesive bonding. This review focuses on the advancements at LaRC using LIBS as a quality control tool for the detection of silicone contaminants for improved adhesive bonding reliability of CFRP materials. This work describes how the LIBS technique was advanced by analyzing the laser parameters, studying the laser-matter interactions, and performing time-resolved measurements to determine the optimal plasma conditions for elemental detection. In addition, LIBS results were compared to X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy data to enable quantitative analysis from analytical calibration curves. Examples are shown of how to perform surface mapping of silicone contamination. Finally, a brief discussion is also presented on LIBS instrumentation, recommendations for laser parameters and instrumentation components, and LIBS technique maturity.

Surface characterization, Carbon fiber reinforced ↗

Recent Advances in LIBS for Real-Time Detection of Silicone Contaminants on CFRP Surfaces

Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is a materials characterization technique that has been advanced and refined to provide in situ, real-time quality control of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) surfaces. As part of an effort to improve process control for adhesive bonding, aLIBS system was designed and assembled at the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) to enable detection of ultra low concentrations of silicone contamination on CFRP adherends. The LIBS instrument provides high sensitivity detection and quasi-nondestructive surface characterization ofCFRP adherends prior to adhesive bonding. This review focuses on the advancements at LaRC using LIBS as a quality control tool for the detection of silicone contaminants for improved adhesive bonding reliability of CFRP materials. This work describes how the LIBS technique was advanced by analyzing the laser parameters, studying the laser-matter interactions, and performing time-resolved measurements to determine the optimal plasma conditions for elemental detection. In addition, LIBS results were compared to X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy data to enable quantitative analysis from analytical calibration curves. Examples are shown of how to perform surface mapping of silicone contamination. Finally, a brief discussion is presented on LIBS instrumentation, recommendations for laser parameters and instrumentation components, and LIBS technique maturity

Rodolfo I. Ledesma↗

Bond Line Thickness Estimation in Composite Structures Using Multiple Inspection Techniques

Imaging and other nondestructive evaluation techniques are commonly used for material characterization and defect recognition in safety critical aerospace applications, with data fusion providing the framework for uncertainty quantification in these contexts. Most commonly, forward physics-based modeling predicts the response conditioned on material properties and defect assumptions, and probabilistic methods are used to infer the hidden state of the subject of the inspection from a combination of prior information, likelihoods, and inspection data. In this paper Bayesian methods are used to estimate bond thickness in lap joints comprised of aluminum adherends using a combination of infrared thermography and ultrasound. The concept of the conflation of probability distributions is applied to combine the posterior distributions derived from thermography and ultrasound and the quality of the fused estimates are compared against the individual estimates against synthetic data that was created to mimic the inspection of a lap joint comprised of aluminum adherends.

thermal nondestructive evaluation↗

Thermal Inspection for the Assessment of Adhesively Bonded Metal Adherents

Certification of adhesively bonded structures is currently a challenge for aircraft manufacturers. The ability to certify bonds in primary structure can reduce dependence on fasteners and this will enable more efficient manufacturing. For example, drilling holes and installing fasteners in bonded joints can be a potentially significant bottleneck in airframe manufacturing. In addition, fasteners increase the airframe weight and can add stress concentration areas. Reducing fastener count can accelerate manufacturing and improve aircraft performance. NASA is currently investigating nondestructive evaluation (NDE) techniques to assess bond integrity. For example, bond thickness influences bond strength and therefore NDE techniques are being investigated to determine bond thickness. For bonded metal structures, there is a large difference in the thermal diffusivity between the 7075 aluminum alloy metal adherends and aircraft grade adhesive. Multi-layered thermal models show a large variation in the thermal response for bondline adhesive thicknesses that vary from 100 to 300 microns for adherend thicknesses of 0.163 cm. Experimental through-transmission thermal measurements reveal promise to quantitatively characterize the bondline thickness. Results were validated with X-ray computed tomography and optical microscopy measurements, and influence of porosity on the thermal model and measurements are investigated.

bondline thickness↗

Cyclic debonding of adhesive joints

Bonded lap joints were manufactured and tested under static and fatigue loading. Specimens were designed to fail in the bondline, and all fatigue tests included monitoring the crack growth to failure. Test specimens included aluminum details joined by two different adhesives. Specimens also included titanium and boron-epoxy details joined by an epoxy laminating resin. Additonal program variables included bondline thickness, adherend and spice plate thickness, specimen width, and specimen fabrication procedure. Adhesive aging was found to be generally detrimental to the lives of most of the specimens bonded with one adhesive system. Adhesive material was found to have a major influence on debond rate. Co-cured titanium/boron-epoxy specimens were found to resist debonding better than specimens fabricated with a sequential cure. Splice plate thickness and test section width were found to have little effect on debond rate. The data also suggested the existence of an optimum bondline thickness.

Hoffman, D. J.↗