USE OF RULE OF MIXTURES AND METAL VOLUME FRACTION FOR MECHANICAL PROPERTY PREDICTIONS OF FIBER-REINFORCED ALUMINUM LAMINATES

This paper presents the results of a statistically designed programme conducted to validate feasibility of using the relationship of mechanical properties and metal volume fraction in fibre-metal laminates to make property predictions. Experimental and analytical practices employed to obtain these mechanical properties for tension, compression, in-plane shear, and bearing are described. Results from this pilot study show that use of the metal volume fraction may be useful for the prediction of strength mechanical properties in fibre-metal laminates. However, this needs further study to validate the concept. If the hypothesis is valid, the number of laminate configurations to be tested to qualify a fibre-metal laminate family can be minimized. The findings imply that the metal volume fraction approach using a rule of mixtures can be exploited to estimate design properties for a multitude of fibre-metal laminate variants, which is economically beneficial to the preliminary stages of aircraft design.