Delamination behavior of spliced Fiber Metal Laminates. Part 1. Experimental results

The sizes of Fiber Metal Laminate (FML) sheets available can be increased c onsiderably with the application of the splicing concept. A disadvantage of this concept can be the occurrence of delamination caused by load transfer over the splice. An experimental program has been carried out to investiga te the delamination behavior for different splicing geometries and metal la yer thicknesses. Griffith's energy criterion is applied to calculate a dela mination resistance for the configurations tested. The approach is modified for the presence of residual stresses in the laminate and plasticity in th e metal layers. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.