FLAx REinforced Aluminium (FLARE): A bio-based Fibre Metal Laminate alternative combining impact resistance and vibration damping

Fibre metal laminates (FML) were initially conceived as a hybrid material, aiming to create synergy between the impact resistance of metals and excellent fatigue resistance of fibre reinforced polymers. The purpose of this approach was to overcome the limitations of single-material structures. However, despite its considerable promise, the use...

Investigation of compression after impact failure in carbon fiber reinforced polymers using acoustic emission

Although several studies have been performed, the compression after impact (CAI) failure of CFRP is still not entirely understood. It is still unclear what sequence of events determines the onset of failure in CAI tests and how the different damage modes are involved in this process. To experimentally investigate this matter, the present work...

Impact fatigue, multiple and repeated low-velocity impacts on FRP composites: A review

A review of experimental evidence from the literature in relation to “impact fatigue”, “multiple impacts”, and “repeated impacts” on FRP composites, along with articles discussing theoretical and numerical simulations, is provided. A new terminology and definition is presented to clear the meanings of these types of loadings. Experimental...

Barely visible impact damage assessment in laminated composites using acoustic emission

Despite the key advantages of Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) composites, they are susceptible to Barely Visible Impact Damage (BVID) under transverse loadings. This study investigates BVID in two quasi-isotropic carbon/epoxy laminates under quasi-static indentation and Low-Velocity Impact (LVI) loadings using Acoustic Emission (AE). First,...

Comparing damage from low-velocity impact and quasi-static indentation in automotive carbon/epoxy and glass/polyamide-6 laminates

The results of a low-velocity impact programme on both carbon/epoxy and glass/polyamide-6 composite laminates are compared to the results of quasi-static indentation. Cross-ply and quasi-isotropic stacking sequences are impacted and quasi-static indentation tests are performed up to the same maximum displacement. The response of the laminates...

Investigation of the low velocity impact on advanced hybrid laminates: Improving the impact resistance of CFRP laminates by embedding metal constituents

Composites have been widely applied in current aerospace structures. In spite of various advantages that composites have, the sensitivity to the impact damage for the composite materials has become a severe threat to the structural integrity of aerospace structures. Therefore, this research work focuses on embedding metal layers in the composite...

Geometrically nonlinear analysis of matrix cracking and delamination in composites with floating node method

In this paper, the recently-developed floating node method is extended for damage analysis of laminated composites with large deformations. Strong discontinuities including interfacial delamination and matrix cracks are explicitly represented by geometrically nonlinear kinematics. Interactions between these two kinds of failure patterns are...

Low-velocity impact behaviour of open-cell foams

Metal foams are cellular solids that show some unique properties which cannot be found in other natural or human-made materials. While the impact characteristics of closed-cell foams under static and impact loadings appear to be well-studied in the literature, the impact behaviour of open-cell foams is not yet well-understood. In this study,...

Low-velocity impact on fibre-metal laminates

Generating high-energy absorbing FML concepts is challenging because aluminium and composite failure mechanisms are acting concurrently during the impact process. Because the impact process involves energy transformation, an analytical energy balance method was used to assess the contribution of the material constituents in the low-velocity...

Damage evolution in GLARE fibre-metal laminate under repeated low-velocity impact tests

An experimental study was performed on the repeated low-velocity impact behaviour of GLARE. Damage evolution in the material constituents was characterised with successive number of impacts. Records were correlated with visual inspection, ultrasound C-scan and chemical etching. The stiffness of the plate varied when cumulating the number of...

Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Metal Type and Thickness Effects on the Impact Resistance of Fiber Metal Laminates

The impact response of fiber metal laminates (FMLs), has been investigated with experiments and numerical simulations, which is reported in this article. Low-velocity impacts were carried out to study the effects of metal type and thickness within FMLs. Glare5-3/2 laminates with two aluminum layer thicknesses and a similar FML containing...