Experimental investigation on mechanical behavior of fiber–metal laminates reinforced by hybrid carbon nanotubes and nanosilica under quasi-static pressure load

In this study, the effect of carbon nanotubes (CNT) and silica nanoparticles on quasi-static behavior of fiber–metal laminates (FML) has been experimentally scrutinized. FML consists of two layers of aluminum alloy plates and four composite layers including CNT/nanosilica-reinforced epoxy resin and glass fibers. The effect of weight percentage of carbon nanotube and nanosilica incorporated and their weight ratio in resin epoxy on the performance of FMLs against quasi-static compressive load has been considered. Furthermore, the design of experiments method and response surface methodology have been put into practice to develop an accurate mathematical relationship between the input parameters and the response variable. After designing and performing the experiments based on analysis of variance, a mathematical model corresponding to the real process is obtained. Moreover, the presented model has been validated by statistical methods. The results of this study indicate that the energy absorption capacity of these materials significantly increase through adding CNT to the FML, the highest failure force of 11.64 kN was obtained for FLMs comprising 0.6 wt.% of CNT and 3 wt.% of SiO₂. An improvement of 27.88% and 45.86% in the absorbed energy and failure force was achieved, respectively, by adding 3 wt.% of SiO₂ and 0.6 wt.% of CNT to FLM compared to pristine FLM.