Investigation of the leak tightness of structural adhesive joints for use in battery housings considering mechanical and corrosive loads

ABSTRACT Due to increasing legal requirements to reduce emissions from vehicle fleets, vehicle manufacturers are focusing on the electrification of the powertrain. In entirely electrically driven vehicles, the energy is stored in traction batteries integrated below the passenger cell between the axles and thus located in the vehicle’s wet area. Therefore, high requirements apply to the protection of the sensitive cells against mechanical stress as well as against moisture penetration. In addition, one of the main requirements for the connections of the battery housing is to ensure gas tightness over the entire service life. Adhesive bonding technology as a planar joining process offers the potential to produce functionally tight connections. However, there is a lack of reliable test methods for validating the long-term tightness of structural adhesive joints under mechanical and corrosive loads. For this reason, the paper deals with developing a test concept with laboratory-scale test specimens for leak testing under mechanical loading. Various leakage test methods investigate the leakage rate of structurally bonded joints. An analysis of the leakage rate under superimposed cyclic mechanical shear tensile loading follows this. The test method is validated on a specially developed sample battery housing on a laboratory scale.