The Deformation Characteristics, Fracture Behavior and Strengthening-Toughening Mechanisms of Laminated Metal Composites: A Review

Multilayer metal composites have great application prospects in automobiles, ships, aircraft and other manufacturing industries, which reveal their superior strength, toughness, ductility, fatigue lifetime, superplasticity and formability. This paper presents the various mechanical properties, deformation characteristics and strengthening–toughening mechanisms of laminated metal matrix composites during the loading and deformation process, and that super-high mechanical properties can be obtained by adjusting the fabrication process and structure parameters. In the macroscale, the interface bonding status and layer thickness can effectively affect the fracture, impact toughness and tensile fracture elongation of laminated metal matrix composites, and the ductility and toughness cannot be fitting to the rule of mixture (ROM). However, the elastic properties, yield strength and ultimate strength basically follow the rule of mixture. In the microscale, the mechanical properties, deformation characteristics, fracture behavior and toughening mechanisms of laminated composites reveal the obvious size effect.