Effect of an Interlaminar Adhesive on the Yielding Behavior of Aluminum/Fiber-Reinforced Thermoplastic Composite Laminates

An adhesive stress-release model is proposed to predict the relief of thermal residual stress due to the presence of an adhesive layer in hybrid aluminum/fiberreinforced laminates. The model is developed based on the thermal curing temperature and composite constituent properties and is used to determine the laminate initial yielding and deformation behavior. The adhesive layer functions as a compliant layer to release the thermal residual stresses and to delay the yield occurrence, thus enhancing the laminate's deformation behavior. Compared with available experimental data for graphite/PPS and glass/PPS with 2024-T3 or 7075-T6 aluminum hybrid thermoplastic laminates, the proposed model has better predictive capabilities than some other commonly used models.