GLARE deformation in low-restraint state: Tensile and bending behavior

Abstract

Fiber metal laminates (FMLs) possess a better weight reduction effect than traditional metal materials due to the coupling properties of heterogeneous materials, showing promise in the areas of aviation and aerospace. At present, the research on FMLs mainly focuses on the deformation properties after curing while the mechanical properties in the low-restraint state, i.e. the laminates are temporarily not cured and are formed under lower constraint stresses, are not studied in detail. Herein, the low-restraint GLARE is taken as a research object and its deformation characteristics and failure mode are studied using uniaxial tensile, bending experiments and numerical simulation in this paper. Moreover, the influence of key parameters, such as temperature, laminate structure and span length, is investigated, as well as the tensile and bending deformation behavior of GLARE in a low-restraint state is obtained. In addition, based on experimental observations, it is found that the low-restraint GLARE produces the phenomenon of interlayer slip, and the interlaminar residual stress is much smaller than the cured laminate, whereas the deformation limit and performance are improved. This paper provides theoretical bases for the in-depth analysis of deformation properties and forming laws of low-restraint GLARE, guiding further applications of laminates.