Impact damage to fibre metal laminates under compression loading

The effect of in-plane compression loading on the low energy impact response of fibre metal laminates (FML) is investigated. A GLARE®-like FML consisting of bonded layers of aluminium alloy and glass-epoxy composite was impacted at different incident energy levels (up to ∼20 J) while under different axial compression strain levels (up to 8000 μe). Experimental testing and finite element (FE) analysis reveal that compression preloading increases (up to 50%) the maximum impact force experienced by the FML due to shortening of the impact contact time. The out-of-plane deformation of the FML, the amount of plasticity damage to the aluminium layers, and the shape and size of delamination damage to the glass-epoxy layer are dependent on the compression strain level. The FE model predicted the impact response and impact damage to the FML. The FE model is a validated numerical tool to analyse the low energy impact response of FMLs used in compression load-bearing structures.