In situ Crack Propagation Monitoring in Tubular Adhesive Joints Containing Quartz Nano-particles

Abstract

The change in piezoelectric signal of epoxy adhesives during the damage of adhesively-bonded structures can be used to monitor the reliability of the joint without producing any defects induced by inserting a sensor in the adhesive. However, due to the low piezoelectric properties of epoxy adhesives, the sensitivity of damage monitoring should be enhanced. Therefore, in this work, the epoxy adhesive was mixed with quartz nano-particles which have much higher piezoelectric properties than the epoxy adhesives. To investigate the effects of the quartz nano-particles in the adhesive joint, static and dynamic tests on the tubular adhesive joints were performed to invetigate the joint strength and sensitivity of damage monitoring performance at room temperature. From the experiment results, it was found that quartz nano-particles not only increased the sensitivity of damage monitoring performance but also improved the static and fatigue joint strengths. (C) Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2011