Experimental investigation on timber-glass double-lap adhesive joints reinforced with nylon fabric

•Shear tests on treated and untreated double lap epoxy adhesive joints are performed to evaluate the contribute of the nylon reinforcement.•EPX1 with untreated adherends proved to be the best in terms of load-bearing capacity and compatibility in terms of displacement.•A statistical analysis is performed in order to define the influence of the nylon reinforcement and of surface treatments on the obtained results. Adhesive technology is widely used and studied in different fields. This joining method allows to join different materials, assembling lightweight and solid structures. However, joints are usually the most vulnerable part of a structural system. A method of reinforcing adhesive joints is the insertion of elements inside the adhesive layer, to improve the mechanical performance of the joint both in terms of ultimate strength and stress distribution. In this paper, the effect of nylon fabric reinforcement inside the adhesive layer of timber-glass adhesive joints, according to different positions, is studied and discussed. Two different epoxy adhesives have been used in double-lap adhesive joints between treated and untreated timber (i.e. mahogany) and float glass adherends. Shear tests carried out on both reinforced and unreinforced joints showed a generalised increase in terms of ductility of the reinforced configuration accompanied by a decrease in ultimate strength.