The effects of thermal cycle and nanostructure reinforcement on the shear load in adhesively bonded joints

In this study, the shear strength of a nanocomposite adhesive was experimentally and numerically investigated under ambient temperature and thermal cycling conditions. This study used the Thick Adherend Shear Test method, which is commonly used to determine the shear stress–displacement of adhesives. Shear–displacement was determined by an extensometer to accurately compare results obtained from the Thick Adherend Shear Test results for joints with numerical analyses. As a result, when the shear failure load obtained from experiments was examined, the nanocomposite adhesives, obtained by adding a nanostructure into the adhesive, improved both the ambient temperature and thermal cycling performances of the joints. © 2018 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.