For adhesives used in structural adhesive bonds, the service lifetime and environmental ageing are fundamental elements when considering safe design and ensuring the integrity of a structure over its desired lifetime. Ideally, the environmental conditions in which a bonded structure must operate can be quantified, and their effect on structural degradation estimated. It is known that, on the long term, the mechanical performance (stiffness and strength) of an adhesively bonded structure strongly depends on the environmental temperature and the amount of moisture. Both of these environmental factors adversely affect the structural integrity of an adhesive joint, and thus its durability and lifetime. This work analyses aluminium-epoxy single lap shear samples after ageing. An experimental approach is applied to improve the understanding of the mechanical behaviour of adhesive bonds when exposed to multiple environmental factors acting simultaneously. This paper extensively discusses and compares the individual and combined influence of four different environmental factors, static and dynamic loading, UV radiation, temperature and humidity, on the residual strength of a single lap shear joint (ASTM D 1002-05). A design of experiment approach is adopted to define the interaction between the different ageing parameters mentioned above. Moreover, an ANOVA procedure, carried out on various test batch results, analyses the sensitivity of the various environmental factors. The main observed mechanical characteristics are the stiffness and (residual) strength of the single lap samples. After failure, an analysis of the fracture surface yields further information on the sample condition after ageing. The results of the study, for the specific investigated test conditions, indicate that the residual strength of the single lap joint depends strongly on temperature, our observations even show an increase by a factor of 3. On the other hand, other effects may cause a reduction of mechanical properties.

对于用于结构粘合剂粘合的粘合剂，在考虑安全设计和确保结构在其预期使用寿命内的完整性时，使用寿命和环境老化是基本要素。理想情况下，可以量化粘合结构必须运行的环境条件，并估计它们对结构退化的影响。众所周知，从长远来看，粘合结构的机械性能（刚度和强度）很大程度上取决于环境温度和水分含量。这两种环境因素都会对粘合接头的结构完整性产生不利影响，从而影响其耐用性和使用寿命。这项工作分析了老化后的铝-环氧树脂单搭接剪切样品。当暴露于同时作用的多种环境因素时，应用实验方法来提高对粘合剂粘合机械行为的理解。本文广泛讨论和比较了四种不同环境因素（静态和动态载荷、紫外线辐射、温度和湿度）对单个搭接剪切接头的残余强度 (ASTM D 1002-05) 的单独和综合影响。采用实验方法设计来定义上述不同老化参数之间的相互作用。此外，对各种测试批次结果执行的方差分析程序分析了各种环境因素的敏感性。观察到的主要机械特性是单圈样品的刚度和（剩余）强度。失败后，对断裂表面的分析可提供有关老化后样品状况的更多信息。研究结果，对于特定的研究测试条件，表明单搭接接头的残余强度强烈依赖于温度，我们的观察甚至显示增加了 3 倍。另一方面，其他影响可能会导致机械性能的降低。