FAILURE BEHAVIORS OF REPAIRED COMPOSITE STRUCTURES

Summary

Scarf bonding technique is increasingly used as a method of repairing thick composite

structures, especially when flatness of repaired surfaces and high recovery rates of stiffness
and strength are required. The partially damaged structure is first cut in form of circular or
rectangular cutouts. A patch is then added to restore its shape and strength. Several types of
bonding joints, such as over-lap, stepped-lap and scarf-lap, can be used to join the damaged
part with the patch for repair. It is clear that understanding the failure behaviors and
prediction methods of adhesively bonded joints is necessary in order to investigate those of
the repaired structures. A schematic configuration of repaired laminates used in this study is
shown in Fig.1.
The aim of this research was to investigate the failure behaviors and to predict failure load of
those scarf-repaired laminates. The specimens were manufactured and tested under in-plane
tensile loading. Several repair parameters such as defect sizes, over-ply lap length and scarf
angle were considered. Failure load and modes were recorded and investigated. A finite
element analysis using damage zone method was conducted for the failure load prediction.

Fig. 1. Schematic configuration of repaired laminate used for tensile testing

The damage zone method bases on the assumption that failure will occur after an appropriate
number, area or volume of elements failed in the finite element model. A random specimen
was chosen as the reference and its experimental failure load was applied to the finite element
model to evaluate the critical damage zone. This critical value was then used to predict the
failure load of other repaired laminates.
Two main failure modes were experimentally observed: cohesive failure of the adhesive layer
and laminate failure in the parent laminates and the patch. The failure load of the specimens
was reduced with the increase of scarf angle. Finite element models observed locally failed
zone inside the specimen at experimental failure load. The predicted failure loads were
compared to experimental results and a good agreement was obtained in virtually all cases of
parameters.