Experimental and Numerical Simulation on Formability and Failure Behavior of Thermoplastic Carbon Fiber/AL Composite Laminates

Abstract

Carbon fiber reinforced thermoplastic/aluminum alloy (CFRTP/AL) composite laminates have the advantages of low density, high specific strength, and good fatigue resistance, which is a new type of engineering composite material to realize lightweight vehicle body. Heterogeneous interface delamination failure occurs in the forming process of the fiber metal laminates (FMLs). It is necessary to establish an effective finite element simulation strategy to accurately predict the delamination failure behavior of FMLs. In this work, thermoplastic PA6 continuous carbon fiber/AL FMLs were taken as the research object, and the double cantilever beam (DCB) and the end-notched flexure (ENF) experiments were carried out to determine the basic mechanical parameters between the interlayer interfaces of CFRTP/AL. Furthermore, a numerical simulation model based on ABAQUS software was developed to describe the progressive damage failure behavior of the CRFTP/AL in the forming process by using the equivalent modeling strategy of discontinuous micro-shear, which realized the effective prediction of ply directional damage failure of FMLs on the basis of the S-beam model. The results show that the established damage constitutive model and numerical method coupled with cohesive zone model (CZM) can effectively predict the ply directional damage failure behavior of CFRTP/AL composites during the large deformation forming.