This project’s goal was to develop a new coating adhesion test based on induced stress to determine the suitability for overcoating of an existing highway structure. Laboratory test procedures for measuring coating stresses were explored that included deflection measurements using a capacitive sensor and direct measurements using a miniature surface mounted fiber-optic strain gage. Based on test results, the direct measurement method using miniature strain gages was selected since it provided more reliable and reproducible data than the deflection measurement test. Two types of prototype testers were then fabricated for laboratory and field evaluation: prestressed elastic material adhesion tester and the mechanical shear stress adhesion tester. The tests were performed on a number of overcoating materials that included a polysilicone enamel, an acrylic, a moisture cured urethane and two different epoxies. The results showed the elastomeric device to be most promising for adhesion testing. It maintained a near constant level of stress on test panels throughout the monitoring period and appeared to be most suitable for time dependent failure evaluation. The present device, however, is not capable of producing 10 MPa stresses over test panels representative of an existing structure and needs further refinement and evaluation in order to make it into a field tester for coating adhesion.  The final report is available from the National Technical Information Service (NTIS # PB2003-102866).

The final report for this IDEA project can be found at:
https://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/archive/studies/idea/finalreports/highway/NCHRP074_Final_Report.pdf