In order to understand the importance of the adhesive contribution the total resistances of the hybrid joints bonded with the FT-EP at different interference levels were compared to the interference contributions detected from the loads after break of the same samples (figure 10). In addition the resistances of adhesive joints in clearance condition are also included.
The interference enhanced the joint strength of the hybrid systems, especially for higher interference levels. The two linear fits related to the hybrid joints and the interference contributions were characterized by similar slopes, suggesting that the resistance of the hybrid joint is enhanced accordingly to the interference contribution. This parallelism can be referred to the theory of the superposition of the effects of the pressure between hub and shaft and the resistance of the adhesive. But, the superposition theory cannot be absolutely confirmed because of the high dispersion of the data of the hybrid joints resistance. This variability was probably introduced by the adhesive contribution, since the load recorded after the break of the same hybrid joints was clearly dependent on the interference level, with a low standard deviation. Thus, the contribution of the adhesive seemed to govern the total strength of the hybrid joint to a large extent. As a matter of fact, the strength values of the adhesive joints in clearance condition were in the same order of magnitude (Gallio et al., 2014).