Experimental study on the improvement of mechanical properties of GLARE using nanofillers

The present study investigates the effect of halloysite clay nanotubes (HCNTS) on the mechanical properties of glass reinforced aluminum laminate (GLARE) as a very popular fiber metal laminate (FML). GLARE (3/2) with quasi-isotropic lay-up, [Al/[(0 degrees/90 degrees)/(45 degrees/-45 degrees)]s/Al/[(0 degrees/90 degrees)/(45 degrees/-45 degrees)]s/Al], filled with different wt% ofHCNTs (0, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, and 3 wt%) were fabricated using hand lay-up followed by compression molding. Tensile, flexural, and impact properties of the fabricated GLAREs were evaluated. The failure of the specimens was examined using field emissionscanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and visual inspection. Test results demonstrated that the incorporation of HCNTs improves the mechanical properties of GLARE. Among the studied wt%, the inclusion of 1 wt% of HCNTs to GLARE leads to maximum improvements of 35.67%, 8.50%, 28.85%, 50.47%, 50.27%, 30.43%, and 51.52% in tensile strength, tensile strain, Young's modulus, modulus of toughness, flexural strength, flexural strain, and impact strength, respectively, was attained by adding 1 wt% of HCNTs to GLARE compared to pristine GLARE. Meanwhile, increasing HCNT(S)content to 3 wt% reverse the trend. FESEM showed that, HCNT(S)are well dispersed in epoxy. However, a higher weight fraction of HCNT(S)in epoxy, that is, 3 wt% leads little agglomerations.