In situ cure monitoring of adhesively bonded joints by dielectrometry

Abstract

Since the reliability of adhesively bonded joints is much dependent on the curing status of thermosetting adhesives, the in situ cure monitoring during the cure of adhesive joints could improve the quality of adhesively bonded joints as it enables one to control the cure parameters. In this work, a dielectric method which measures the dissipation factor of the adhesive during the cure of joints and converts it into the degree of cure of the adhesive was devised. Steel adherends were used for the adhesively bonded joints because the steel adherends worked as the electrodes for the measurement of dissipation factor without additional electrodes. The relation between the dissipation factor and the degree of cure of adhesive was investigated, which could eliminate the temperature effect on the dissipation factor that is largely affected by the degree of cure and temperature of adhesive. Comparing the results obtained by the method developed with those by DSC (differential scanning calorimetry), it was found that the dissipation factor showed a trend similar to the cure rate of the adhesive.