Abstract
To meet the high demand for lightweight energy-efficient and safe structures for transport applications, a current state-of-the-art light rail vehicle structure is under development that adopts a multi-material design strategy. This strategy creates the need for advanced multi-material joining technologies. The compatibility of the adhesive with a wide range of material types and the possibility of joining multi-material structures is also a key advantage to its success. In this paper, the feasibility of using either epoxy or polyurethane adhesive joining techniques applied to the multi-material vehicle structure is investigated. Importantly, consideration is given to the effect of variation in bond thickness for both families of structural adhesives. Multi-material adhesively bonded single lap joints with different adhesives of controlled bond thicknesses were manufactured and tested in order to experimentally assess the shear strength and stiffness. The torsional stiffness and natural frequency of the vehicle were modelled using a global two-dimensional finite element model (FEM) with different adhesive properties, and the obtained vehicle performances were further explained by the coupon-level experimental tests. The results showed that the vehicle using polyurethane adhesive with a target bond thickness of 1.0 mm allowed for optimal modal frequency and weight reduction.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 6991 |
| Number of pages | 15 |
| Journal | Materials |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue number | 22 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 18 Nov 2021 |
Bibliographical note
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
Funder
Funding Information:The experimental works were funded by Innovate UK on the project ?Joining technology to enable implementation of light weight structures in automotive? (grant number: 49430).Acknowledgments: This work was supported under the Coventry Very Light Rail Project by Coventry City Council. The vehicle structure was designed in collaboration with WMG by TDI Ltd., UK. The authors are also grateful to Laura Gendre for supplying materials.
Funding Information:
Funding: The experimental works were funded by Innovate UK on the project “Joining technology to enable implementation of light weight structures in automotive” (grant number: 49430).
Funding Information:
Acknowledgments: This work was supported under the Coventry Very Light Rail Project by Coventry City Council. The vehicle structure was designed in collaboration with WMG by TDI Ltd., UK. The authors are also grateful to Laura Gendre for supplying materials.
Keywords
- Adhesive bonded joints
- Finite element model
- Multi-material light rail vehicle
- Single lap joint
- Variation in bond gap
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Materials Science(all)
- Condensed Matter Physics