Research on Tensile Strength and Fatigue Properties of GLARE Laminate

Glass fiber reinforced aluminum alloy laminate (GLARE) is hybrid structural materials consisting of aluminum alloy and glass fiber reinforced composites. Due to its excellent structural strength and fatigue performance, it has become the ideal choice for main load-bearing structures and fatigue-critical components in the aerospace industry. However, the presence of holes in the Glare laminates, which are often used for fastener connections and assembly, greatly reduces the structural strength due to stress concentration at the hole locations. In this study, the tensile performance and fatigue life of perforated GLARE laminate was tested using experimental methods. Additionally, the ABAQUS software was used to establish a layer-board damage failure model to analyze the injury evolution. The results show that compared to aluminum alloy specimens under the same testing conditions, GLARE laminate has a lower elastic modulus. However, after the yield point, the tangent modulus of GLARE laminate is significantly higher than that of aluminum alloy. The advantage of the fiber layer in the reinforcement direction becomes increasingly apparent with increasing strain. The fatigue fracture of GLARE laminate includes metal fracture, fiber pullout and delamination. As the ply angle changes from 0° to 45°, the yield strength and tangent modulus of the laminates gradually decrease, and the fatigue life is significantly shortened. Additionally, based on the progressive failure analysis method, the stress distribution at the hole edge of the perforated GLARE laminates and the damage evolution process of the laminates were obtained.