Determination of Elastic Modulus in a Bimaterial Through a One-dimensional Laminated Model

A model based on classical laminated plate theory reduced to one-dimension is proposed for analysis and data reduction of tensile testing of a bimaterial. The model is formulated in such a way that, through simple measurement of the bimaterial elastic response in a tensile test, it is possible to obtain the elastic modulus of one of the materials composing the bimaterial, if the dimensions and modulus of the other material are known. The sensitivity of the model to different material and geometric parameters is examined. The accuracy of the model is investigated comparing the model predictions to independent tensile testing and simple rule of mixtures. The proposed model can be used in cases where the properties of one of the materials in a bimaterial are difficult to obtain directly because of geometric constrains, like in the case thin films bonded to a thicker substrate. The model could also be extended to multilayers and/or bending loading cases.