Moussa, OmarVassilopoulos, Anastasios P.de Castro, JuliaKeller, Thomas2012-06-152012-06-152012-06-15201210.1016/j.ijadhadh.2012.02.005https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/81900WOS:000304580300013The thermomechanical recovery behavior of a commercial cold-curing structural epoxy adhesive was investigated. Exposing the adhesive to temperatures above the glass transition temperature T-g significantly increased the latter although the curing degree increased only marginally. Cooling the adhesive from temperatures above T-g to temperatures below T-g led to full recovery of the mechanical properties (tensile stiffness and strength). The secondary bonds between the polymer chains fully reformed after cooling. Temporarily exceeding the T-g did not therefore result in any degradation of the material-on the contrary, the mechanical properties significantly improved due to post-curing. Simulating temperature fluctuations by eight consecutive cycles across glass transition also improved the mechanical properties and did not lead to any degradation. An existing model for predicting temperature-dependent mechanical properties was extended to also describe the recovery behavior. The simulations agreed well with the experimental results. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Cold-curing structural adhesivesMechanical propertiesEpoxy resinDscCuring degreeGlass transition temperatureTransition-TemperaturesMechanical-PropertiesInternal-StressCompositesPolymersBehaviorShearCuretext::journal::journal article::research article