In-plane flexural behaviour and failure prediction of carbon fibre-reinforced aluminium laminates

Abstract

This paper investigated the in-plane bending behaviour of carbon fibre-reinforced aluminium laminates (CARALL). The flexural progressive damage and failure mechanisms were analysed numerically and experimentally. Four types of CARALL specimens with a 3/2 configuration were prepared via hot-pressing using different aluminium alloy materials (2024-T3, 7075-T6 aluminium alloy) and fibre orientations ([0°/90°/0°]₃, [45°/0°/−45°]₃). The three-point bending tests were conducted under static loading. It was found that the primary damage modes were aluminium layer yielding in the mid-span and delamination between the aluminium and carbon fibre-reinforced polymer (CFRP) layers. A user-defined FORTRAN subroutine VUMAT based on ABAQUS was used to simulate the failure of the CFRP, a cohesive zone model was used to predict the inter-laminar failure, and a von Mises plastic model was used to define the isotropic hardening behaviour of the aluminium layers. The predicted results agreed well with the experimental ones. Two convenient calculation methods based on the elasticity mechanics and material mechanics were derived. And the non-linear behaviour of aluminium was considered in the elasticity mechanics method. The theoretical results matched closely with the experimental findings during the linear elastic deformation process.