Creep behavior of polymeric adhesive joints exposed to different environmental conditions

Abstract This article intends to examine the creep response of single‐lap adhesive joints (SLAJs) exposed to different environmental and temperature conditions. Therefore, SLAJs were fabricated and then immersed in seawater and deionized water at 40°C for 24 hours before conducting creep tests. The experimental results showed that seawater had lower detrimental effect on the creep and elastic responses of SLAJs than deionized water. The shear creep and elastic strain values of SLAJs immersed in deionized water increased averagely by 19.8% and 43%, respectively, whereas those strains for SLAJs immersed in seawater increased averagely by 2.1% and 28.8%, respectively, compared to SLAJs maintained in dry condition. This was because of the higher moisture ingress of adhesives aged in deionized water than in seawater due to the osmosis phenomenon. Moreover, the results showed 23% and 14% increase in shear creep and elastic strains, respectively, by increasing the water temperature from 30°C to 50°C. Furthermore, the time‐dependent responses of SLAJs immersed in different environments with different ageing temperatures were simulated by Burgers rheological model.