Behaviour under Impact of Mixed Adhesive Joints for the Automotive Industry

The automotive industry is increasingly using adhesive joints bonding advanced lightweight materials to reduce vehicle weight. Strength under impact loadings is a major concern for this application and mixed adhesive joints can effectively improve the joints by combining stiffness and flexibility on the same overlap. This work introduces and studies several configurations for static and impact tests of mixed adhesive joints with four adhesives in different combinations. The main purpose of this work is the development of a strong adhesive joint using a mixed adhesive layer and perform a series of mechanical to study its mechanical behaviour. It is concluded that the use of the mixed adhesive technique improves both static and impact strength by introducing flexibility to the joint which subsequently allows more energy absorption when introduced in crash resistant structures.