Effect of Surface Treatment on the Performance of CARALL, Carbon Fiber Reinforced Aluminum Dissimilar Material Joints

• Main Author: Bandi, Raghava
• Other Authors: D'Souza, Nandika
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: University of North Texas 2017
• Subjects: Fiber Metal Laminates; Surface treatments; Bond strength; Tensile; Compression; Flexural; Lap shear strength.; Laminated materials.; Strength of materials.; Aluminum alloys.; Carbon fibers.
• Online Access: https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1011869/

Fiber-metal laminates (FML) are the advanced materials that are developed to improve the high performance of lightweight structures that are rapidly becoming a superior substitute for metal structures. The reasons behind their emerging usage are the mechanical properties without a compromise in weight other than the traditional metals. The bond remains a concern. This thesis reviews the effect of pre-treatments, say heat, P2 etch and laser treatments on the substrate which modifies the surface composition/roughness to impact the bond strength. The constituents that make up the FMLs in our present study are the Aluminum 2024 alloy as the substrate and the carbon fiber prepregs are the fibers. These composite samples are manufactured in a compression molding process after each pre-treatment and are then subjected to different tests to investigate its properties in tension, compression, flexural and lap shear strength. The results indicate that heat treatment adversely affects properties of the metal and the joint while laser treatments provide the best bond and joint strength.