Investigating the Effects of Surface Treatment and Nanoparticles Addition on Mechanical Properties of FMLs Using the Response Surface Methodology

In this paper, the effect of various surface treatment processes and nanoclay addition on the mechanical properties of fiber metal laminates is investigated. For this purpose, the aluminum alloy 3105 was surface treated under different processes includes degreasing, mechanical abrasion, chemical etching, chromate conversion treatment and combinations of these processes. Then, the fiber metal laminates were manufactured by aluminum sheets, pure epoxy resin and modified resin with nanoclay and glass fiber using hand lay-up process. The effect of different processes of surface treatments and using nanoparticles on the flexural and impact properties of the specimens was investigated using response surface method. The results obtained indicted that the chromate conversion treatment of metal surface has a most effective role in increasing the mechanical properties of the specimens. While, among different processes of surface treatments, degreasing has a less effective role in enhancement of mechanical properties of fiber metal laminates. The result of main effects analysis also showed that despite the useful role of nanoclay in improvement of the mechanical properties of fiber metal laminates, the role of surface treatment processes is more effective than nanoparticles addition.