Experimental study of the effect of GO / WMCNTs on the mechanical properties and impact response of magnesium‐based fiber metal laminates

Abstract In order to investigate the effect of graphene oxide (GO)/multi wall carbon nanotubes (WMCNTs) on the mechanical properties and low‐velocity impact response of magnesium‐based fiber metal laminates (FMLs), the FMLs specimens reinforced with GO, WMCNTs or their mixture were prepared, and quasi‐static tensile and low‐velocity drop hammer impact tests were performed. The tensile test results showed that the mechanical performance of FMLs could be improved by adding a certain concentration of nanoparticles. The tensile strength increased by 14.9% and 26.6% when the concentration of GO or WMCNTs is 0.6 wt%, respectively. Due to the agglomeration phenomenon, there are the opposite effect for the tensile strength of FMLs when the particle concentration is excessive. After the mixture of GO and WMCNTs was added to the epoxy matrix, the tensile strength of FMLs could still be increased by 12.8% at the GO to WMCNTs ratio of 0.6:0.9 (the overall concentration of particle is 1.5 wt%). And the elastic modulus is also significantly increased, but it has a negative effect on the ductility. The low‐velocity impact test results showed that the FMLs reinforced a mixture of GO and WMCNTs have greater peak impact load due to the lager stiffness. The FMLs reinforced with WMCNTs have better energy absorption capacity under impact load due to lager damage area.