Damage tolerance assessment by bend and shear tests of two multilayer composites: Glass fibre reinforced metal laminate and aluminium roll-bonded laminate
The damage tolerance of an aluminium roll-bonded laminate (ALH19) and a
glass fibre reinforced laminate (GLARE) (both based in Al 2024-T3) has been studied.
The composite laminates have been tested under 3-point bend and shear tests on the
interfaces to analyze their fracture behaviour. During the bend tests different fracture
mechanisms were activated for both laminates, which depend on the constituent
materials and their interfaces. The high intrinsic toughness of the pure Al 1050 layers
present in the aluminium roll-bonded laminate (ALH19), together with extrinsic
toughening mechanisms such as crack bridging and interface delamination were
responsible for the enhanced toughness of this composite laminate. On the other hand,
crack deflection by debonding between the glass fibres and the plastic resin in GLARE,
was the main extrinsic toughening mechanism present in this composite laminateFinancial support from CICYT (Project MAT2003-01172) is gratefully
acknowledged. C.M. Cepeda-Jiménez thanks the Spanish Ministry of Education and
Science for a Juan de la Cierva contract. Authors also thank Delft University of
Technology for providing the GLARE.Peer reviewe
