Timber/Glass Adhesive Bonds : Experimental testing and evaluation methods

Both timber and glass are materials that have aesthetically pleasing properties. An appealing idea is to combine them to overcome the drawbacks and utilise the beneficial mechanical properties. Adhesive bonding with an appropriate adhesive could provide a uniform stress distribution at the transition between the materials. This report presents a study of three different adhesives, silicone, acrylate and polyurethane. Intentionally, adhesives with a wide range of properties were chosen. The adhesive bonds between timber and glass were tested both in tension and in shear with rather small bonds, 800 mm2. Special fixtures were designed both for gluing and testing of the adhesive bond specimens studied. The results presented include a traditional study of strength, failure type and relative displacement measured with LVDT’s, but also an extended study with a non-contact optical 3D-deformation measuring system and finite element modelling. Of the adhesives tested, the acrylate (SikaFast 5215) performed best, both in tension and shear. The mean strength obtained for this adhesive was 3.0 MPa in tension and 4.5 MPa in shear. Even if an important factor when gluing glass is the load distribution ability, the flexible silicone adhesive has too low stiffness and strength for use in structural components, where structural refers to the ability of a component to carry loads other than its own weight.
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