Fibre metal laminates with integrated heater elements have a promising potential as de-or anti-icing systems in aircraft structures. The alternating metal and composite lay-up in fibre metal laminates seems ideal for the development of a multifunctional skin with embedded heater elements. However, the long term durability needs to be carefully examined. A unique thermal cycling setup has been designed and built to investigate the effects of thermal cycling on the material properties of GLARE (glass fibre reinforced aluminium). Peltier elements were used to provide external heating and external cooling by inverting the direction of the electrical current. With the same setup, heated GLARE samples can be internally heated using the integrated heater elements and externally cooled using the Peltier elements Glass-fibre epoxy composite, GLARE, and heated GLARE samples have been thermal cycled for 4000, 8000 and 12000 cycles with temperature differences of 120 • C. The interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) increased by 6.9 % after 8000 cycles for the glass-fibre epoxy composite material compared to the non-cycled samples. The GLARE samples showed a maximum ILSS increase of 4.2 % after 12000 cycles. However, the heated GLARE samples showed a continuous decrease of the ILSS with a maximum decrease of 7.8 % after 12000 cycles.

The integration of untethered, multi‐stimuli responsive actuation into soft microrobotic devices is a goal in the development of “smart” materials. This manuscript reports on a dual‐stimuli responsive bilayer actuator consisting of a light responsive liquid crystal network (LCN) and a magnetic responsive polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) composite. This design is of facile fabrication with ample design freedom, using no additional adhesion layers. Untethered control of the bilayer permits motions including bending and rotation, steered individually or in synchronization. Through a systematic study the direct impact of the PDMS layer was elucidated on the light triggered rate of actuation and maximum deformation amplitude of the LCN film. The alignment (homeotropic or planar) of the LCN has a profound effect on the resulting bilayer actuation. It is demonstrated, both experimentally and theoretically, that the rates of sample heating and actuation are directly correlated and highlight the critical role of the PDMS as a heat sink. The maximum amplitude of displacement of the bilayer is tied to the stiffness, being inversely correlated to the PDMS thickness to the third power. These results give insights and provide straightforward design rules to fabricate bilayer actuators with programmed multi‐responsive properties.

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