Effects of Thermal Residual Stresses on Tensile and Interlaminar Shear Behaviors of GLARE Laminates

The residual stresses caused by curing, forming and machining process significantly affect the mechanical behaviors of composite materials, especially for super hybrid structure like GLARE (glass fiber reinforced aluminum laminates). In this work, the curing thermal residual stresses characteristics of GLARE and corresponding effects on tensile and interlaminar shear behaviors were investigated. Firstly, the characteristics of residual stresses were described by a finite element (FE) model and verified by layer removal method. Then, thermal residual stresses were incorporated into FE mechanical behavior prediction models in the form of predefined field to analyze the effects on tensile and interlaminar shear behaviors. The corresponding simulation conclusions were consistent with the experimental observations. The results indicated that there were about 40 MPa tensile residual stress in aluminum layers and 70 MPa compressive residual stress in GFRP (glass fiber reinforced polymer) layers of GLARE. Residual stresses had obvious reduction effect on the yield strength of GLARE, and the prediction accuracy was hence improved by 9%. Moreover, the failure mode of tensile tests was hardly affected by the residual stresses, but the tensile strength and the initial damage loads were reduced slightly. In interlaminar shear tests, the peak load and initial damage load were reduced by the residual stresses in the adhesive layers of GLARE, and the interlaminar shear strength was slightly influenced. An edge failure mode caused by edge effect was observed during the propagation of the delamination cracks, which was verified by interlaminar shear finite element models and SEM (scanning electron microscope) images.