Investigation on the effects of the number and diameter of the wires on the strength of the reinforced adhesive joint of composites

One of the most important issues in the manufacturing of composite structures is the ability to connect and assemble them. Design and manufacturing of connections with the appropriate strength is essential. One of the strengthening methods of composite connection is the employment of reinforcing elements in the adhesive layer. The use of additional elements in the adhesive layer leads to uniform stress distribution and consequently improves the joint strength and toughness. In this paper, the idea of using metal wire for enhancing the adhesive joints was developed for the first time. Parameters such as the number of wires, wire diameter and mechanical property of wire were considered as the influencing parameters on the joint strength. Experimental tests were designed in order to evaluate the effect of these parameters and the obtained results were described with the finite element outcomes. It was observed that the joint strength improved more than 90% using 20 wires as reinforcing elements in Araldite 2015 adhesive. It was also found that increasing the number of wires, wire diameter and wire stiffness led to the more uniform stress distribution and increased the joint strength.