Flexural strength of aluminium carbon/epoxy fibre metal laminates

Fibre-metal laminate (FML) is a material constituted by composite laminae and metal sheets, whose mechanical properties can be tailored by varying the thickness and the number of layers. For this reason, in the present work different types of FML made of carbon-fibre–reinforced polymer and aluminium sheets were produced and tested; in particular, the influence of both the layer thickness and the layer adhesion was analysed through three-point bending tests. It was found that both the abovementioned factors influenced the flexural strength of FML; precisely, the presence of an adhesive layer between the composite plies and the metal sheet made the flexural strength decrease, while this mechanical parameter increased passing from two metal sheets to only one.