Experimental study on fatigue crack propagation of fiber metal laminates

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the fatigue crack growth behavior of a kind of fiber metal laminates (FML) under four different stress levels. The FML specimen consists of three 2024-T3 aluminum alloy sheets and two layers of glass/epoxy composite lamina. Tensile-tensile cyclic fatigue tests were conducted on centrally notched specimen at four stress levels with various maximum values. A digital camera system was used to take photos of the propagating cracks on both sides of the specimens. Image processing software was adopted to accurately measure the length of the cracks on each photo. The test results show that: (1) a-N and da/dN-a curves of FML specimens can be divided into transient crack growth segment, steady state crack growth segment and accelerated crack growth segment; (2) compared to 2024-T3 aluminum alloy, the fatigue properties of FML are much better; (3) da/dN-ΔK curves of FML specimens can be divided into fatigue crack growth rate decrease segment and fatigue crack growth rate increase segment; (3) the maximum stress level has a large influence on a-N, da/dN-a and da/dN-ΔK curves of FML specimens; (4) the fatigue crack growth rate da/dN presents a nonlinear accelerated increasing trend to the maximum stress level; (5) the maximum stress level has an almost linear relationship with the stress intensity factor ΔK.