Fracture Surface Topography Parameters for S235JR Steel Adhesive Joints After Fatigue Shear Testing

Abstract

This paper presents the experimental results of a study investigating the effect of holes and notches made on the overlap ends on the strength of adhesive joints. Single-lap joints made of S235JR steel sheets bonded with Araldite 2024-2 epoxy adhesive were tested. For comparative reasons, static shear strength tests and high-cycle fatigue strength tests were performed. Adhesive-filled joints having three holes, each with a diameter of 3 mm, and notches, each 3 mm wide and 4 mm long, were tested and compared with reference joints, i.e. without modification. The assumption was to determine whether the structural modifications would reduce the peak peel and shear stresses that are typical of this type of joints. Results of the static strength tests showed no significant effect of the applied modifications on the strength of the joints. However, in terms of fatigue strength, the results demonstrated a significant improvement in fatigue life, the value of which increased in the low-cycle fatigue region by 328.6% for the joint with notches and by 640.8% for the joint with holes. A smaller yet still positive effect of the applied modifications was shown for high-cycle fatigue. For a variable load with the maximum value of 9 MPa, the fatigue life increased by 215.9% for the variant with notches and by 183.3% for the variant with holes. Surface topography of fatigue fractures was examined by determining roughness parameters on the overlap ends in the samples. Significant differences were shown, with the selected roughness parameters being significantly lower for the reference variant than for the variants with notches and holes. It was shown that the applied structural modifications led to increasing the fatigue strength to 8.5 MPa for the limit number of cycles equal to 2•106, when compared to the reference variant for which the fatigue strength was 8 MPa.