Effect of Patch Thickness on the Repair Performance of Bonded Composite Repair in Cracked Aluminum Plate

Abstract Bonded composite patch repair of cracked components and weakened aerospace structures has gained high acceptance and demand. It offers significant advantages over traditional repair methods. These advantages permit a significant increase in fatigue life. In this study, we investigated experimentally the fatigue crack behavior of V- notched Aluminum 2024-T3 plates, of 2mm thickness, bonded with single side carbon composite patch configuration. This include the study of the repair efficiency and fatigue life of cracked samples patched with three different patch thicknesses consisting of 4, 6 and 8 layers, subjected to fatigue loading. However, to compare and calculate the efficiency of bonding, we studied the behavior of unrepaired configurations. The experimental results showed that the fatigue life increases with increase in patch thickness. Maximum fatigue life was obtained for specimen repaired with 8 plies patch which was about 3 folds compared to unrepaired one.