An investigation on blunt notch behavior of fiber metal laminates containing notch with different shapes

In this study, the blunt notch strength of a fiber metal laminate with circular, elliptic and square notch shape has been studied up to failure point. Investigation of the stress concentration does not give a good idea about the strength in anisotropic plates and a failure criterion should be employed to evaluate failure. Therefore, an analytical method has been developed to evaluate stress components and predict the failure around the holes with different shapes. In order to obtain empirical results, specimens were manufactured by alternatively stacking aluminum and E-glass-epoxy layers according to the Glare standard. Analytical results show that the yielding of aluminum layers is the damage occurring to the plate initially. As a result, after the onset of the plastic flow in metallic layers the plate is not homogenous anymore, and conventional analysis cannot not be applied. An analytical model has been suggested to inspect the behavior of the plate at its ultimate load and is verified by ANSYS simulation. Comparison of different models indicates that numerical and theoretical models agree well with experimental test results. Also, the effect of aluminum thickness on strength has been examined analytically.