Failure Mode and Analysis of the Bonded/bolted Joints between a Hybrid Fibre Reinforced Polymer and Aluminium Alloy

Composites are being used extensively in several engineering applications. However, the efficiency of the joints used in joining composites and metals can be improved. To move towards a sustainable and environment friendly future, natural fibre composite material was used. Towards the above objective, research work was carried out for the assembly between a composite and aluminium. Three different joints namely adhesive bonding, mechanical fastening and hybrid joining were considered for the assembly of variable substrates. Two different types of adhesives namely high modulus acrylic adhesive and low modulus rubber adhesive were chosen for the study. Tensile tests were performed to evaluate the joint strength and failure modes for different joining techniques. It has been found that for acrylic type adhesive, adhesive bonding proves to be suitable. The effect of bolting had no significant effect on the joint strength in hybrid joints for the acrylic type adhesive. For the rubber type adhesive, hybrid joint shows better performance than other types of joints. The effect of bolting for rubber type adhesive in hybrid joint significantly improved the load carrying ability of the joint.