Vibration and formability characteristics of aluminum-polymer sandwich materials.

Abstract

Metal/polymer/metal sandwich materials are finding increasing use in the automotive industry primarily as lightweight alternatives to steel and aluminum alloys. In addition to low density they also offer other functional benefits e.g. improved vibration damping. In order to exploit such beneficial characteristics it is necessary to examine the manufacturability of these materials. In this work the vibration characteristics and formability were examined in selected materials, chosen from a group of aluminum/polypropylene/aluminum sandwich materials. First, a systematic study was carried out on vibration characteristics of square sandwich plates using 3D finite element models and usefulness of such a 3D displacement field in understanding the damping mechanisms as well as their contributions toward the modal damping were discussed. Second, a study of stretch formability of several sandwich materials was conducted. Since the knowledge of tensile properties is essential for understanding the formability, those properties were determined by performing uniaxial tensile tests on several aluminum/polypropylene/aluminum (Hylite<super>RTM</super>) sandwich materials and their constituent materials. The phenomena of diffused necking and deformation of material up to and beyond the point of necking were systematically investigated. Furthermore, the formability of sandwich materials was assessed by comparing the experimentally determined forming limit diagrams (FLDs) of monolithic 5182 aluminum and several sandwich materials. In addition to the experimental research, theoretical modeling was carried out to predict formability based on the concept of growth of pre-existing defects. One such model, known as M-K analysis, was utilized on the basis of defects existing in (i) the aluminum skins and (ii) the overall thickness of the sandwich. The experimental and theoretical results suggest that the levels of forming limit in sandwich materials are far less than those for monolithic materials of equivalent stiffness. This result may be related to smaller defect factor in the skin of the sandwich materials.