Joining of Advanced

Composites

By
Vimal Kumar Thummalapalli

Why Joining of Composites is

important
Assembly account for 50%
of manufacturing cost for
composites.
The Achilles heels of
composite structures are
the joints.
You cant just go to a
handbook and look up
composites to get the right
tools, right machine and
processing procedures for
joining the composites like
conventional metals,
Polymers and ceramics.

Objectives of Composite Joints:

It should retain good mechanical properties
at extreme conditions.
It should provide an conducting path to the
commercial composite structure.
It should reduce the weight of the composite
material.
It should be easily to repair .
The structure should be easily to inspect like
NDE and quality control.

Types of Joining of Composites:

Adhesive bonding
Mechanical Joining
Combined Adhesive and Mechanical Joining
Co-Curing Process
Stitching

Advantages of Mechanical Bonding

These mechanical bonds are easily to repair and easily to
inspect while quality control.
The mechanical joints are simple in construction so
production is faster.
These are not effected by the environment and
temperature except they under go corrosion.
These parts do not require a neat room and environment
like adhesive joints.
We can get a good joint by adding extra composite material
,metallic reinforcements at the composite join but it will
increase the overall weight of the composite structure.
Also these joints have some disadvantages.

Drilling of Composites

In the process of drilling matrix could melt

from too much heat, while the carbon fibers
dont cut well because they fracture instead of
shearing smoothly.
A drill cutting through a layered composite
structure is likely to push the layers ahead of
it, producing unacceptable delimitation on the
exit side.
diamond coating of 12-micron coating delivers
the best value in terms of cost vs. tool life.
Optimum speed of drilling will give good
Quality.
The drilling process often relies on some kind
of backside support.
Plain weave fabrics were used at the top and
bottom layer of composite so damage can be
reduced.

Bolts and Screws

Commonly used materials are : Ti, Al and Cd coated Stainless Steel, Cold worked
Stainless Steel (A286), Inconel 718, Ni-Co-Cr Alloy MP35N and MP 159.
bolts and nuts may exert too much compressive force and the materials could be
deformed.
If the Composites are not strong in shear then screws may not hold huge weights.
In a big complex composite structure bolts and nuts are the stress concentration
points.
Long term effects are: Fatigue, Solvents and water penetration through the hole.
Composite joints with bolts, hole have poor performance in tension (20% - 50%).
Some people were trying use fasteners used from the composites so that weight
can be reduced.
Carbon can cause galvanic corrosion with Al and Steel so Titanium (Ti-6Al-4V) is
usually best for carbon. Glass , Kevlar are non conductive so these will not corrode
metal fasteners.
If any gaps are present near the fastener and composite shimming process is
done.

Finishing and Failure

Adhesive bonding
A wide variety of materials is available when
adhesives are used to bond materials together.
The choice of which adhesive is best is usually
dictated by the type of composite to be bonded,
the application of the bonded composite, the
service environment, and cost.
The most common polymers in the structural
adhesives class are: epoxies, polyurethanes,
acrylics, cyanoacrylates, silicones, and phenolics.

Selection of a proper adhesive:

Thermal Conductivity of adhesive.

Chemical Compatibility.
Viscosity.
Temperature resistance.
Mechanical strength of adhesive.

Fundamentals of Adhesives:
All substances known to us consist of
atoms and molecules with their cohesion
being based on electric forces.
Inside the material these forces are
equally distributed between the atoms
and/or the molecules.
On the surface of the material atoms and
molecules no longer have equal
neighbors ,therefore They are capable
of binding other substances, for example,
dust particles or water drops.
These sites are useful in the adhesion
process.
Such force actions are developed in a
similar way by polymer molecules, which
then fuse to form a strong bond with
those of the adhered surface

Production of Bonded Joints

Surface Treatment:
Plasma Treatment
Solvent Cleaning in the
presence of heat
Cleaning the surface with
heated Distilled water
Mechanically trimming
small layer by abrasion or
by shaving the surface.(Also
Grinding, brushing, sanding
or blasting)

Viscosity
Depending on the adhesive
viscosity and the wettability
of a surface, liquid drops
applied to a surface take on
different forms.
The contact angle smaller
the value, the better the
wetting. Good wetting is
talked of, if the values of are
below 30 .
Also bond line thickness will
increase if viscosity is more.
So viscosity plays meager role
in the designing of adhesive.

Effect of Adhesive thickness

Effect of Bond Length:

Effect of Surface roughness

Rough surface will get good
adhesion . As high surface
area is available for the
bonding.
On rough surface we cant
get uniform wetting as resin
cant penetrate into the small
pores.
We can find some air gaps at
the interface of the adhesive
bond in the case of the rough
surface .

Failure of the adhesive joint

Cohesive
fracture
Interfacial
fracture
Mixed Failure
Failure of
adherent

Disadvantage of Adhesive bonding:

The heat resistance of the adhesive layer is limited. Depending on

the basic material of the adhesive, temperatures for continuous
stress range between approximately 120 and 300 C.
Adhesive layers and their boundary layers towards the adherents
surfaces may be damaged by environmental impacts, such as
humidity, which results in a reduction of strength.
In the production of bonded joints, the time required for the
relevant reaction kinetics of curing is more .
The growing demand for recyclability of industrial products calls for
respective design-engineering measures.
The availability of nondestructive test methods is rather limited.
Quality control , Inspecting, Repairing of complex adhesive joints is
big problem.

Combination of Mechanical and

Adhesive Joining
Application of both a mechanical joining
device and an adhesive are required for better
mechanical strength.
Here fast curing adhesives may be used as a
method of rapid assembly before the
permanent mechanical joints are installed.
As the complexity of structure and its
application increased we cant use both
methods.

Stitching of Composites:
Through-the-thickness stitching is
a method that increases trans
laminar strength while at the
same time preventing crack
propagation.
Results showed that the fracture
toughness increased 30 fold
when compared to the unstitched
laminate
Stitching will damage the fibers
and insert some holes in the
composite so it will decrease the
in plane properties of
composites.
Stitching leads to better control
on the handling while processing
of composites.

Stitching is a cost-effective
method for joining stacked fabric
plies along their edges to make
the perform .
Without stitching or some other
type of binding, stacked plies
often slip during handling that
can cause fiber distortions and
resin-rich regions in the
composite.

Ref: Master Thesis MIXED MODE FRACTURE TOUGHNESS OF STITCHED LAMINATED COMPOSITES By T.Rys ,Department of Aerospace
Engineering, University of Florida 2004.

Types of stitches used:

Lock stitch
Modified Lock
stitch
Chain stitch

Ref: Master Thesis MIXED MODE FRACTURE TOUGHNESS OF STITCHED LAMINATED COMPOSITES By T.Rys ,Department of Aerospace
Engineering, University of Florida 2004.

Defects in Composites due to Stitching

Mechanical properties of Stitched

Composites:

Mechanical properties of Stitched

Composites:

Mechanical properties of Stitched

Composites:

Co-Cured composite Joints:

This method is very good for joining small
composite parts.
The size of the composite part increases we
cant use this method as size of autoclave is
limited.
Very limited chance for the repairing of the
composite.
We cant control the resin rich spaces in the
co-cured composites

Conclusions:
You cant just go to a handbook and look up composites
to get the right tools, speeds and feeds, and processing
procedures.
Helicopter manufacturers were among the earliest
adopters of advanced composites. While commercial
aircraft are only now reaching 50 percent composites by
weight, some helicopters have long been 90 percent
composites by weight. So composite manufactures should
adapt their skills.
The choice of joining method is complex and should be
made with careful consideration of the application
purpose, the use environment, and the fabrication process.

References:

http://www.mmsonline.com/articles/how-to-machine-composites-part-4----drilling-composites
http://www.mmsonline.com/articles/how-to-machine-composites-part-1----understandingcomposites
Journal of Materials Processing Technology 140 (2003) 335339
http://strong.groups.et.byu.net/pages/articles/articles/joining2.pdf
Master Thesis MIXED MODE FRACTURE TOUGHNESS OF STITCHED LAMINATED COMPOSITES By
T.Rys ,Department of Aerospace Engineering, University of Florida 2004.
3D fiber reinforced polymer composites By Liyong Tong, Adrian P. Mouritz, Michael K. Banniste
Manufacturing processes for advanced composites By Flake C. Campbell
Joining of composite-matrix materials By Mel M.Schwartz
Applied Adhesive Bonding: A Practical Guide for Flawless Results By Gerd Habenicht
The Effect of Joint Configuration on Joint Strength. H. S. ROH and C. T. SUN ASC 21 Annual Meeting
Proceedings.
www.wikipedia.org
http://www.compositesworld.com/articles/joining
Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing Vol:34, Issue:4, May 2003, Pages 403-410
Composites Science and Technology , Volume:58, Issue:8 , 1998, Pages 645-651