Localized Stresses due to Gas or Air Pockets

Loss of theoretical adhesive strength can also arise from the action of internal stress concentrations caused by trapped gas and voids. Griffith11 showed that adhesive joints may fail at relatively low stress if cracks, air bubbles, voids, inclusions, or other surface defects occur as a result of the curing process. 

Since real surfaces are not smooth or perfectly flat and most epoxy adhesives are viscoelastic fluids, it is necessary to understand the effects of surface roughness on joint strength. A viscous liquid can appear to spread over a solid surface and yet leave many gas pockets or voids in small surface pores and crevices. Even if the liquid does spread spontaneously over the solid, there is no certainty that it will have sufficient time to fill in all the voids and displace the air. The gap-filling mechanism is generally competing with the setting mechanism of the liquid. 

This problem occurs when the liquid solidifies rapidly after being applied. An example is a fast-curing epoxy. Very fast-reacting epoxy adhesive systems that set in several minutes generally do not have the high adhesion strength that slower-curing epoxy systems have. One reason for this (there are others primarily related to the chemistry of these 

FIGURE 3.5 Effect of surface roughness on coplanarity of gas bubbles Upper adherend is smooth, and gas bubbles are in the same plane lower adherend has roughness, and gas bubbles are in several planes. 

Since slower-curing epoxy adhesives systems flow over and wet high-energy surfaces very well, there is little chance for air to become trapped at the interface. As a result, mechanical abrasion is often recommended as a substrate surface treatment prior to application of the epoxy adhesive. The added surface area and the mechanical bonding provided by the additional peaks and valleys on the surface will enhance adhesive strength. If the adhesive does not wet the substrate surface well, such as in the case of epoxy resin on polyethylene, mechanical abrasion is not recommended since it will only encourage the probability of gas voids being trapped at the interface. 

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