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An Investigation into the Forming of Fiber Metal Laminates with Different Thickness Metal Skins Using Hydromechanical Deep Drawing

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Abstract

Lightweight composite materials are being extensively used in the aerospace and marine industry, considering environmental concerns. Fiber metal laminates are one such material that is an answer to the stringent requirement of global ecological concern, along with the capacity to overcome the environmental degradation of monolithic metallic alloys. In this paper, glass laminate aluminum reinforced epoxy (GLARE) in 2/1 configuration consisting of aluminum 2024-T3 with E-glass plain weave fiber prepreg was prepared by hand layup technique in a semi-cured state for carrying out experimental observations. Al skins of different thickness 0.3 mm upper skin and 0.5 mm lower skin were selected considering geometric shape of the required part and forming process for better formability. Hydromechanical deep drawing of the different thickness Al layers in GLARE 2/1 configuration has shown a reduction in overall laminates weight compared to the symmetric GLARE 2/1 laminates having both 0.5 mm upper and lower Al skins, with a considerable depth of the cup-shaped part. The surface treatment, blank holder gap, blank holder force, and die cavity pressure are dominant parameters in fabricating a defect-free part, where predominantly surface treatment contributes to failure due to delamination during forming of GLARE. Other parameters such as blank holder gap, blank holder force and cavity pressure were evaluated using Taguchi L9 orthogonal array method and numerical simulations using Abaqus FEA code which was in close agreement with the experimental observations.

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Funding

This research work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [No. 51675029] and the Science and Technology Project of Sichuan province [2019YFSY0034].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Beihang University, Haidian District, Beijing, 100191, People’s Republic of China

    Hasnain Ali Mirza, Lihui Lang, Muhammad Nazim Tabasum, Zhang Meng & Sergei Alexandrov

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London, UK

    Jun Jiang

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  1. Hasnain Ali Mirza
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  2. Lihui Lang
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  3. Muhammad Nazim Tabasum
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  4. Zhang Meng
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  5. Sergei Alexandrov
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  6. Jun Jiang
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Correspondence to Hasnain Ali Mirza.

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Mirza, H.A., Lang, L., Tabasum, M.N. et al. An Investigation into the Forming of Fiber Metal Laminates with Different Thickness Metal Skins Using Hydromechanical Deep Drawing. Appl Compos Mater 29, 1349–1365 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10443-022-10024-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10443-022-10024-5

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