Characterization of fatigue crack growth in aluminium panels with a bonded composite patch

摘要

This study introduces an analytical procedure to characterize the fatigue crack growth behavior in an aluminium panel repaired with a bonded composite patch. This procedure involves the computation of the stress intensity factor from a two-dimensional finite element method consisting of three layers to model cracked plate, adhesive and composite patch, In this three layer finite element analysis, as recently introduced by the authors, two-dimensional Mindlin plate elements with transverse shear deformation capability are used. The computed stress intensity factor is then compared with the experimental counterpart.