Development of a Cyclic Creep Testing Station Tailored to Pressure-Sensitive Adhesives

Understanding the creep behaviour of materials is crucial in structural design, since assessing their durability and long-term performance is essential for ensuring the safety of the structures. Experimental testing allows to gather data on the creep behaviour of materials, as well as observe the damage mechanisms and dependence on environmental effects, such as stress and temperature. In this paper, the development of a cyclic creep testing station is presented. An innovative compact device is designed for testing single-lap joints using pressure-sensitive adhesives (PSAs) at different stress and temperature levels. The design is based on a mechanism that periodically supports a hanging weight resulting in an alternating load applied to the bonded joint. The assembled testing setup is validated by comparing the results of the developed machine with cyclic creep experimental data obtained with a servo-hydraulic testing machine adapted for cyclic creep. After validation, preliminary tests with one PSA at 55 °C are presented to evaluate its performance at higher temperatures. The results indicate that the developed cyclic creep machine can be used to characterise the creep behaviour of PSAs under cyclic loading.