In order to meet the prospective application of a GFRP dewar for energy storage system using a large superconducting magnet, the dewar with a complex structure together with a large size are desired to be made. It is difficult to manufacture such a type of the dewars in one united body. These dewars can be manufactured by the adhesive-bonding method. In the present study, the mechanical strength of adhesive-bonding is studied from this point of view.
The mechanical strength of the adhesive-bonding has been investigated by the static tensile method and the impact loading method using small test samples. The results obtained from these tests are important to design the GFRP dewar.
From the static tensile tests, the following results have been obtained. For the sample adhesive-bonded with insertion structure, the mechanical strength of the adhesive-bonding is found to depend on the adhesives used and on the difference of the thermal contraction between the materials which are adhesive-bonded each other. Using a soft adhesive as Araldite 106, the mechanical strength of the adhesive-bonding is small at room temperature, but it remarkably increases at cryogenic temperatures. For a hard adhesive as Araldite 103 and Stycast 2850FT, it is large at room temperature, and it further increases at cryogenic temperatures. The dewar has to be strong enough not only at cryogenic temperatures but also at room temperature. A soft adhesive is not suitable for constructing the dewar. For the sample adhesive-bonded with screwing structure, the mechanical strength of the adhesive-bonding depends on the shear strength of GFRP itself. The mechanical strength of the adhesive-bonded part increases with the decreasing temperature. Therefore, this screwing method is advantageous for the construction of the dewar.
According to the impact loading tests, it is found that the adhesive-bonding of screwing structure is not brittle at cryogenic temperature. This is due to inherent property of GFRP.
