The effect of metallic fiber geometry and multi-walled carbon nanotubes on the mechanical behavior of aluminum fiber-reinforced composite adhesive joints

Abstract

The effect of the geometry of metallic fibers on the mechanical response of aluminum fiber-reinforced composite adhesive joints was studied experimentally. Moreover, a combination of multi-walled carbon nanotubes and aluminum fibers was used for reinforcing the composite adhesive joints. Different geometries for the aluminum fibers including straight, twisted and spring-shaped with different pitch lengths were considered. The results indicated that the composite adhesive joints reinforced with a combination of multi-walled carbon nanotubes and aluminum fibers experienced the highest improvement of 171% in the strength compared to the unreinforced specimen. It was found out that the aluminum fiber geometry can significantly influence the adhesive joint behavior. Incorporating the twisted aluminum fibers into the adhesive layer increased, while the spring-shaped fibers decreased the strength of the composite adhesive joints compared to the straight aluminum fibers. The fracture surfaces of the composite adhesive joints were analyzed using scanning electron microscope.