Application of a Compliance Method to Fatigue Crack Growth Analysis of GLARE3 Fiber/Metal Laminates

The objectives of this study were to investigate the effectiveness of a compliance method for analyzing the fatigue crack growth of GLARE 3 fiber/metal laminates, and to ascertain the influence of specimen thickness, notch length, and fiber orientation upon fatigue crack growth. The materials tested were GLARE 3-5/4 and GLARE 3-3/2. Centrally notched specimens with two kinds of notch length and two kinds of fiber orientation were fatigue tested under constant amplitude loading. The experimental stress intensity factors, Kexp, for the 2024-T3 aluminum-alloy layers of a GLARE 3 were obtained from the relationship between crack length and specimen compliance. The test results clarified that da/dN-ΔKexp relationships are roughly independent of maximum stress level, specimen thickness, notch length, and fiber orientations and that the compliance method is effective for analyzing fatigue crack growth in GLARE 3 laminates.