Co-authors​ :

 Anna TRAUTH (GERMANY), Joél SCHUKRAFT (GERMANY), Kay André WEIDENMANN  

Resource efficiency, reuse and recycling of materials as well as increasing the useful life of components are key aspects on the way to more sustainable products. Materials science can make an important contribution to investigate novel concepts for sustainable hybrid materials. Hybrid fiber-metal laminates with a switchable boundary layer are considered as a promising approach towards a more sustainable usage of materials. These laminar multilayer composites consist of metals and fiber-reinforced polymers. Good adhesion between these two components during the service life is offset by the problem of pure recycling at the end of the service life. A thermally or chemically activatable intermediate polymeric layer between the two components enables separation at the end of the product's service life so that the individual components can be fed into the appropriate material cycles. Preliminary investigations demonstrated the general feasibility of interfaces that might allow for de-hybridisation and showed that an activatable intermediate layer (foil of polystyrene) does not significantly reduce performance if the individual components are optimally matched [Wei22]. In a subsequent step the integration of a polymeric foil, combining properties of thermoset and thermoplastic materials, seems promising. In addition, further investigations aim to understand the interface properties as well as the damage behavior of the hybrid fiber-metal laminates with activatable interfaces. In this regard the cutting shear test for determining the interlaminar shear strength [Zin16] is considered. Preliminary investigations aimed to define an appropriate specimen design and preparation technique, to guarantee an optimized edge quality. Subsequently, the design of the testing device was revised based on validation tests, which were accompanied by digital image correlation. Based on an appropriate specimen design and improved testing device, interface properties and damage evolution have been investigated. In detail, the study aims to integrate suitable (in-situ) measurement techniques to investigate the development of damage during load application in order to detect, localise and classify individual damage mechanisms. For this purpose, digital image correlation and acoustic emission are considered. First results showed that the in-situ measurement techniques can successfully be integrated in the testing procedure and deliver valuable information about evolving strain fields and timing of damage.