The use of modern structural adhesives provides a lightweight, practical, and high strength joining methodology, which is increasingly being adopted in the automotive and aeronautical sectors, among many others. However, the strict mechanical performance standards that must be met in these applications require a constant search for ways of improving the adhesives' behavior, which has led to the growing use of reinforcements as a way of improving the capabilities of bonded joints. The aim of this work was, thus, to analyze how the addition of inorganic fillers to the adhesive layer affects a joint's strength and its failure mechanism. To this end, single lap joint specimens with mild steel and high strength steel substrates were tested, at quasi-static speeds, and with different amounts of glass microspheres reinforcing two different structural adhesives. The experimental results indicated that the addition of glass particles reduced the joint performance for both substrates under study. Furthermore, the failure pattern was found to evolve from adhesive failure to a cohesive type of failure as the amount of glass particles present in the adhesive was increased.
Keywords: adhesive bonding; automotive industry; glass beads; material characterization.