Influence of interfacial adhesion on the damage tolerance of A16061/SiCp laminated composites

In this study, lamination as extrinsic mechanism was considered to enhance damage tolerance of three-layer A16061-5%vol. SiCp/Al1050/Al6061-5%vol. SiCp composites. To fabricate laminates of dissimilar interfacial adhesion, different rolling strains were applied during hot roll-bonding. The discrepancy in interfacial strength of laminates was examined by shear test while toughness values were studied using three-point bending test. It was revealed that both interfacial adhesion and damage tolerance were influenced by rolling strain. Interfacial bonding played the major role in the energy absorption during fracture which was quantified as initiation, propagation and total toughness. The results declared that improving the interfacial adhesion elevated the energy consumed for emergence and growth of debonded area. Five different models based on genetic programming have been proposed in order to predict the toughness of composites. Also, corresponding mathematical correlations of introduced models were exhibited. To construct the models, experimental data were randomly divided and used as training and testing sets. The data used as inputs were comprised of five independent parameters such as "SiCp volume content", "average SiCp volume in bulk laminates", "specimen thickness", "rolling strain" and experimented "shear strength". The training and testing results were in good agreement and revealed strong capability for predicting the toughness of laminates.