Characterizing nonlinear constitutive behaviors of fiber metal laminates

Abstract This study characterized the nonlinear tensile behavior of fiber metal laminates (FMLs). FMLs comprise layers of thin metallic sheets and fiber-reinforced composite layers, and a constitutive FML model includes the constitutive relationships of the FML’s constituent materials; however, nonlinear behavior is typically only considered for the metal components of an FML. In this study, a nonlinear constitutive relationship for the unidirectional fiber composites was modeled using a one-parameter plastic model. The nonlinear constitutive law for the metal was formulated using the J 2 flow rule. These relationships were summed for each layer in accordance with laminated plate theory to obtain a constitutive FML model, which was then used for numerical predictions of nonlinear stress–strain curves. The model was validated by comparing its predictions with experimental results from the literature. Moreover, the effect of the inclusion of nonlinear fiber composite behavior on the model predictions was investigated. Results revealed that the difference between the model predictions and the experimental results was less than 4%. These predictions with nonlinear fiber composite behavior were substantially more accurate than those of the model without this behavior for FMLs with angle-ply fiber composites.