Adhesive bonding of composite aircraft structures: Challenges and recent developments

In this review paper, the challenges and some recent developments of adhesive bonding technology in composite aircraft structures are discussed. The durability of bonded joints is defined and presented for parameters that may influence bonding quality. Presented is also, a numerical design approach for composite joining profiles used to realize adhesive bonding. It is shown that environmental ageing and pre-bond contamination of bonding surfaces may degrade significantly fracture toughness of bonded joints. Moreover, it is obvious that additional research is needed in order to design joining profiles that will enable load transfer through shearing of the bondline. These findings, together with the limited capabilities of existing non-destructive testing techniques, can partially explain the confined use of adhesive bonding in primary composite aircraft structural parts.