Effect of Alternate Metals for use in Natural Fibre Reinforced Fibre Metal Laminates under Bending, Impact and Axial Loadings

Fibre Metal Laminate (FML) is largely used in the manufacture of aircrafts. The commercially available FMLs, GLARE, CARALL (CArbon Reinforced ALuminium Laminate) and ARALL make use of Aluminium metal. Other FMLs that are under study by researchers make use of metals such as Titanium and Magnesium based alloys. Owing to the high cost of carbon fibre and the necessity for environment friendly alternatives, in the present work, a portion of carbon is replaced by natural fibre jute in CARALL and CARMAL (CArbon Reinforced MAgnesium Laminate). To the knowledge of the authors, this attempt has not been made before in the field of FMLs. The resulting CArbon-Jute Reinforced ALuminium Laminate and CArbon-Jute Reinforced MAgnesium Laminate are named as CAJRALL and CAJRMAL. Both these laminates are made by hand layup technique and then compressed in a compression moulding machine. The CAJRALL and the CAJRMAL specimens are subjected to Axial, Flexure and Impact tests according to ASTM standards. The effect of the orientations of fibres and influence of the stacking sequences of the fibre and metal combinations and the use of alternating metals on the mechanical performance, are experimentally investigated. The experimental and theoretical results as well as the results obtained through Finite Element Analysis are found to be in close agreement. Also the failure of the FML is predicted by conducting micro level structure analysis.