Low Viscosity Epoxy Structural Adhesive Cured at Room Temperature for Crack Repair of Subway Tunnel

Abstract

Epoxy structural adhesive has good mechanical properties, especially high adhesion, low shrinkage rate, and high stability, widely used in steel plate reinforcement, crack repair, bridge splicing, and concrete bonding, etc. However, due to the high cross-linking density and high internal stress after curing, its shortcomings, such as brittleness, the poor performance of fatigue resistance and heat resistance, limit its application in special track engineering. In this work, two kinds of epoxy structural adhesives (EPA-1, EPA-2) with low viscosity and room temperature curing were synthesized by selecting different bisphenol A epoxy resin and active diluent as component A and modified amine curing agent as component B. The results showed that EPA-1 and EPA-2 presented significant toughness compared with the classic construction adhesive (AralditeXH160). The yield strengths of EPA-1 and EPA-2 were 4.88 MPa and 13.13 MPa, and the shear strengths were 11.93 MPa and 13.08 MPa, respectively, showing good adhesive properties. In addition, the viscosities of EPA-1 and EPA-2 were 127 mPa·s and 308 mPa·s, respectively, and their decomposition temperatures were all above ∼280 °C, which indicated that the self-made epoxy structural adhesives could be used for the repair of cracks in the vibration subway tunnel.