Use of an Optical–Mechanical Test Combined with Acoustic-Emission Techniques to Study Adhesion in Filled Polymeric Composites

ABSTRACT

The use of acoustic-emission (AE) techniques integrated with single-particle composite (SPC) mechanical–optical testing is proposed to evaluate and characterize adhesion in particle-filled polymeric composites. It is shown that not only can an intrinsic interfacial strength be determined but also that different types of adhesion mechanisms may be distinguished in terms of straightforward criteria using the wavelet transform (WT) of the acoustic signature, once problems with internal reflections in the test coupon are resolved. The validity of the proposed method is demonstrated with a study of the adhesion of a commercial poly(vinylbutyral) (PVB) to bare and aminosilane-treated glass beads.

One of a collection of papers honoring Manoj K. Chaudhury, the February 2005 recipient of The Adhesion Society Award for Excellence in Adhesion Science, sponsored by 3M.

Keywords:

• Acoustic emission (AE)
• Adhesion
• Glass beads
• Particle-filled composites
• Poly(vinyl butyral) (PVB)
• Single-fiber fragmentation composite (SFC) test
• Single-particle composite (SPC) test
• Wavelet coefficient (WC) ratio
• Wavelet transformation (WT)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work was supported by the Engineering Center for Surfaces, Polymers, and Colloids at the University of Washington. Helpful discussions with Dr. Marvin A. Hamstad, University of Denver, Department of Engineering, are also gratefully acknowledged.

Notes

One of a collection of papers honoring Manoj K. Chaudhury, the February 2005 recipient of The Adhesion Society Award for Excellence in Adhesion Science, sponsored by 3M.