Characterizing tensile strength of fiber metal laminates

Abstract This study adopted an experimental approach to evaluate the capability of the constitutive model proposed in literature, in conjunction with two different failure criteria, for predicting the tensile strength of fiber metal laminates (FMLs). The FMLs containing layers of fiber composites and thin aluminum sheets with the stacking sequences of [Al/(0/90) 4 ] S [Al/(0/90/±45) 2 ] S [Al/(0/±30/60) 2 ] S and [Al/(±30/±60) 2 ] S . were fabricated. Quasi-static tensile tests were conducted on the samples, from which the failure stresses were obtained. A constitutive model of FMLs including the nonlinear behaviors of composites together with failure criterion was employed to predict the tensile strength of FMLs. Maximum stress criterion and Hill–Tsai criterion were considered as failure criterion in the fiber composites. The thermal residual stresses generated during curing process within each layer were calculated using laminated plate theory and employed in the analysis. Results demonstrated that for FMLs containing 0° carbon fiber plies, maximum stress criterion provided tensile strength predictions that closely matched the experimental data. Conversely, for FMLs composed exclusively of off-axis plies, Hill–Tsai criterion yielded more accurate predictions. Furthermore, the influence of nonlinear effects of fiber composites varied depending on the laminate configuration. For FMLs with 0° carbon fiber plies, the nonlinear behavior had minimal impact on the predicted tensile strength. However, for FMLs without 0° plies, nonlinear effects played a significant role in tensile strength predictions.