Novel thermoplastic fiber metal laminates manufactured with an innovative acrylic resin at room temperature

Abstract

In the current study, the mechanical characteristics of a new generation of thermoplastic fiber metal laminates (FMLs) manufactured by vacuum-assisted resin infusion (VARI) at room temperature are investigated. For this end, Ti-6Al-4V alloy sheets, ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) fabric, carbon fabric, and two hybrid laminates with different layups are manufactured by a novel liquid methyl methacrylate (MMA) thermoplastic resin, Elium®. Prior to fabricating and testing, a multi-step surface treatment is followed to improve the bonding strength between the titanium alloy sheets and fiber-reinforced polymer composite (FRPC) laminates. ASTM standard tests are conducted in tension, compression, shear (both intralaminar and interlaminar) as well as flexural to evaluate the mechanical characteristics of the newly developed hybrid titanium composite laminates (HTCLs). The results are compared with those of equivalent monolithic composites as well as traditional FMLs in the literature to determine the possibility of replacing epoxy resins with Elium® for fabricating different types of FMLs, namely HTCLs. In addition, the results are verified by a recently developed homogenization method, that is the mechanics of structure genome (MSG), which is used in parallel with the rule of mixture (ROM) to verify the experimental results of HTCLs and their constitutive FRPC laminates. The results show equivalent mechanical properties of the newly developed HTCLs compared to those of traditional thermoplastic HTCLs with the advantages of fabricating at room temperature, increasing the production rate, eliminating the residual thermal stresses, and the requirement for post-stretching HTCL panels.