• Composites Research
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.8-16
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• 2010

The Fiber/Metal Laminates (FMLs) have been developed as a new composite material for aerospace application to reduce weight and improve damage tolerance. In this study, firstly FMLs were manufactured and the tensile test was performed to investigate the mechanical properties of FMLs. Furthermore, impact behavior of the low velocity on FMLs which consisted of different types of aluminum or fiber/epoxy layers was tested by the drop weight impact tester based on the different impact energy conditions. The load-time and energy-time curves were employed to evaluate the impact performance of different specimens. Moreover, finite element analysis (FEA) was also performed to simulate the tensile test and impact behavior of FMLs under the same conditions with the tests and good agreements have been obtained between the FEA predictions and experimental results.