Experimental investigation on mechanical behaviors of novel hybrid structure of composite to metal

In order to improve the mechanical properties of the metal-composite hybrid joints, we developed a new joint method, which is called adhesive-multi pin joint method. Both the adhesive between the metallic and composite substrates and some very thin metallic pins running through the substrates in the overlap area transfer the load in this new joint. Metal-composite joints made by traditional adhesive bonded method and new joint method were tensile tested for comparison. The results demonstrated that the proposed joint method can improve the failure load, failure strain, and energy absorption capacity significantly, in addition to that, it can decrease the suddenness of the failure of the joint. All these indications of damage occurring to a joint could promote detection of a problem in a structure before the catastrophic failure. Through the analysis of the failure process of the two different joints, it can be concluded that there is bridging force between the pins so that the pin not only inhibits the peeling of the adhesive layer and the laminate, also transfer load between the joint plates together with the adhesive layer.