Experimental Evaluation of the Peel Characteristics of Structural Adhesives

Peel tests are widely used to characterize the peel strength of bonded joints and to control the adhesion quality. In this research, the adherend effect on the peel strength of a brittle adhesive is experimentally studied using the floating roller peel test with the aim of investigate how the adherend changes affects the adhesion properties on brittle adhesives and also to investigate the viability of using the floating roller peel test in composite-to-composite and composite-to-aluminium joints, and perform the respective comparison with aluminium-aluminium joints. On the other hand, it is also intended to prove the applicability of this test for quality control of adhesion and determination of peel strength in joints with composite materials. The results show that the Araldite® AV138 performance falls within the characteristic values of peel strength of other brittle structural adhesives, with very small discrepancies in the determined parameters.