Experimental and statistical inference on the bond shear strength of glass fibre reinforced polymer in a single lap adhesive joint configuration
摘要
Bond shear strength is one of the governing factors in the failure mechanism of an adhesive joint. The variation in this strength can be attributed to uncertainty in material characteristics and the manufacturing process. In this study, an experimental investigation of single-lap adhesive joints was conducted under quasi-static loading. The bond shear strengths were observed to be in the range of 5.36 to 8.59 MPa with an average strength of 6.9 MPa and a coefficient of variation of 11.8%. Goodness-of-fit tests were conducted using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Anderson-Darling tests to determine the best-fitted theoretical distribution. The study concludes that the Log-Logistic (3P) distribution best fits the experimental data of bond shear strength. However, a less complicated two-parameter Lognormal distribution can also be considered satisfactory to describe the uncertainty in the bond shear strength of the GFRP lap joint. The results of the present study will support probabilistic-based structural design of GFRP composite structures, including the formulation of limit state design guidelines. The novelty of this study lies in the experimental quantification of bond-strength variation by identifying the best-fitting probabilistic distribution. This study is paramount for manufacturing defect-free, higher-quality composite structures.