The effects of ageing and environment on the fatigue life of adhesive joints

This paper presents the results of a durability programme designed to study the effects of ageing and environment on the fatigue life of adhesive joints. The adhesives were typical of those which might be used in civil engineering applications. Specimens were kept under a variety of loading and environmental conditions for 8 years. It was observed that some adhesives showed excellent durability properties, and that the fatigue life of some specimens actually improved with age. Other adhesives were adversely affected by the environment, particularly high humidity or exposure to the natural environment ft was found that good performance in a laboratory high humidity environment does not guarantee good performance when exposed to the natural environment The durability performance of the adhesives bore a close relation to the effects of moisture uptake in the adhesives.