Blister tests on thin-walled composite structures at different temperatures

Blister tests are widely used to characterize adhesives on substrates. In this paper, pressurized blister tests are performed at different temperatures between −40 °C and 180 °C with two different glass fiber-reinforced plastic laminates. The paper examines the influence of surface pretreatment and geometric features of the substrate. The resulting burst pressures vary between 1 bar and 150 bar. Our studies show that the main influences on burst pressures at high temperatures are glass-transition temperature and storage modulus, and at low temperatures brittleness of the epoxy. Surface pretreatment of corundum blasting results in the highest burst pressures. While the gap width has a big impact on burst pressures, gap spacings show little influence. •A method and results of pressurized blister tests up to 150 ​bar at temperatures from −40 ​°C to 180 ​°C are presented.•Investigations on the impact of surface pretreatment and geometric features of the substrate are reported.•Empirical investigations on elastic and strength properties of two GFRP systems are shown.