Effect of Aluminum Surface Treatment Process on Shear Strength of GLARE

Bonding interfaces between aluminum sheets and composite layers has a significant effect on durability of GLARE (glass reinforced aluminum laminate). An important challenge is to find a proper surface treatment method for aluminum sheets to obtain a strong bonding. This paper presents an experimental investigation on the effect of aluminum surface treatment on interfacial characteristics of aluminum-composite in GLARE. Three methods of chemical surface treatment were used to etch aluminum sheets and then bonding strength between aluminum sheets and glass/epoxy layer were examined by single lap shear joint tests. Surface morphology of each aluminum sheet was specified by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) before and after surface treatment processes. The results showed that the surface morphology of aluminum affects the bonding strength between aluminum and glass/epoxy layers, significantly