The Influence of the Thickness and Areal Density on the Mechanical Properties of Carbon Fibre Reinforced Aluminium Laminates (CARAL)

摘要

A novel composite material consisting of a laminate of several thin aluminium sheets bonded with layers of carbon fibre mat/epoxy resin. Carbon fibre reinforced aluminium laminates (CARAL) offer specific advantageous properties such as better strength, fatigue, impact, corrosion resistance, fire resistance and weight savings. CARAL is a kind of fibre metal laminate system. In the present work, CARAL was prepared and experimental tests were conducted to evaluate the influence of the thickness and areal density on the mechanical properties of CARAL. Mechanical properties such as, the tensile strength and flexural strength of the laminates were increased with the increase in thickness and areal density. CARAL with four aluminium layers and three carbon fibre mat layers have superior strength than the laminates with lesser number of layers due to thickness of laminates and areal density.