Dynamic testing of adhesive joints using a shock testing machine

A light-weight shock testing machine, designed for type approval testing of naval equipment up to 300 kg mass, has been modified into a dynamic tensile test rig. This enables to test structural details for high rate dynamic tensile loadings such as occur during underwater shock. The maximum capacity is 200 kN and can be reached within a few milliseconds. This test rig was used for tensile shock tests on three different types of bonded composite-metal joints. Compared to results from quasi-static testing, the shock tests show a considerable increase of tensile strength for two of the three types of connections and a different ranking.