Experimental Investigations on the Effects of Thermal Residual Stresses on the Efficiency of Repaired Panels with Glass/Epoxy Composite patch

摘要

The aim of this experimental investigation is to study the effect of various curing temperatures on crack-front shape and crack growth life of centrally cracked aluminium panels in mode-I condition with single-side glass/epoxy composite patches. The aluminium panels are made of Al 2024-T3 with the thicknesses of 2.29 mm. Unidirectional four layers lay-up perpendicular to the initial crack length were used for the patches of all specimens and the adhesive was Araldite LY564. The cyclic remote stress of 118 MPa with the R-ratio of 0.05 was applied for all models. The experiments were performed for different curing temperatures of room temperature, 50℃, 80℃, 100℃ and 120℃. It is shown that the fatigue crack growth life of the repaired panels with curing temperatures of 100℃ and 120℃ is considerably smaller than those obtained for specimens cured at room temperature and 50℃.