Fiber Metal Laminate Structure, a good replacement for monolithic and composite materials

Abstract Lightweight materials such as aluminium alloys, magnesium alloys, and composite material present a significant possibility for applications in automobile and aerospace structures. In order to consider the feasibility of selecting and replacing such materials in the form of hybrid laminated materials, calculations and simulations are investigated with different lightweight materials such as single layer aluminium, fiber-reinforced composite materials, and the aluminium composite laminates, the carbon and glass cloth as the middle layer, under the constant force condition. The stiffness and deflections of these materials are discussed and compared in details. According to calculations, FE and experimental results validate that the deflections and the stiffness of different materials can be predicted well. In order to finalize the material selection, especially for aerospace-based components, the weight ratios are very determinative. Actually, a material with the superior specific stiffness and strength will be the best one considering some other limitations such as corrosion. Calculating the mass ratio of the suggested lightweight materials were done to find an appropriate one. In fact, these kinds of materials have the advantages of both metallic alloys and composites. In addition, in cases where corrosion resistance, environmental protection, fatigue resistance, and impact resistance are needed, FMLs can be the best choice.