- Author
- Rossiter, W. J., Jr. | Vangel, M. G. | Embree, E. J. | Kraft, K. M. | Seiler, J. F., Jr.
- Title
- Performance of Tape-Bonded Seams of EPDM Membranes: Comparison of the Peel Creep-Rupture Response of Tape-Bonded and Liquid-Adhesive Bonded Seams.
- Coporate
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
- Report
- NIST BSS 175, May 1996, 67 p.
- Distribution
- Available from National Technical Information Service Available from Government Printing Office
- Keywords
- adhesive tapes | adhesive testing | bonding | building technology | creep-rupture | EPDM | microscopy | roofing | seams | time-to-failure
- Abstract
- A study was conducted to compare the creep-rupture response (i.e., time-to-failure of TTF) of tape-bonded and liquid-adhesive-bonded seams of EPDM (ethylene-propylene-diene terpolymer) roofing membranes. Two commercial tape systems (i.e., tape and primer) and one liquid adhesive were applied to well-cleaned EPDM rubber. The creep-rupture experiments were conducted at 23 ºC (73 ºF) and 40% to 45% relative humidity under peel loads ranging from 3.1 N to 24.9 N (0.7 lbf to 5.6 lfb). For each adhesive system, the data were found to be fitted well by the model: ln(mean TTF)=b₀ + b₁ · Load + b₂ exp(b₃ · Load). A comparison of the fitted curves for the tape-bonded specimens with those for the liquid-adhesive-bonded sepecimens provided a basis for evaluating the relative creep-rupture response of the two types of bonding systems. Similarly, a comparison of the fitted curves for the replicate data sets of each adhesive system gave a measure of the batch-to-batch reproducibility of the creep-rupture data. The major conclusion was that the tape-bonded specimens had times-to-failure that were, in most cases, comparable to or greater than those of the liquid-adhesive-bonded specimens. And, the tape-bonded specimens provided time-to-failure results that were reproducible between replicate sets.