The effectiveness of patch repairs to restore the impact properties of carbon-fibre reinforced-plastic composites

Abstract

The present paper studies the low-velocity impact testing of carbon-fibre reinforced-plastic (CFRP) pristine and patch-repair CFRP panels. Firstly, the effect of repeated impacts on the pristine CFRP damage growth is considered at impact energies of 7.5, 10.5 and 30 J. Secondly, such tests lead to a single-sided, patch-repair panel being manufactured by removing a 40 mm diameter central hole, to act as the ‘damaged area’, from the parent CFRP panel and then adhesively-bonding a circular CFRP patch-repair over the hole so generated. Various diameters and thicknesses for the CFRP patch-repair are employed and, in some cases, a CFRP circular plug is also used to fill the hole created by removal of the parent composite. The measured load versus time, and load versus displacement, traces are compared. Further, the extent and location of any interlaminar damage, i.e. delaminations between the plies of the CFRP, caused by the impact event are mapped using an ultrasonic C-scan technique. It is shown that single-sided patch repairs can be very effective in restoring the impact performance of damaged CFRP panels.