Patch shape and size effect on performance of in-situ scarf patch repair in aircraft panel

Abstract

Patch repairing technique is effective and efficient approach to enhance structural performance of aged aircraft panels. The presented work emphases on studying the patch shape and size effect on scarf composite patch repair of aluminium aircraft panel under thermal, thermo-elastic and mechanical load. In this work, patched repaired structural member has been simulated by ABAQUS software to find out the performance of patch repair in term of patch thickness and patch shape. Five different patch shapes are chosen to analysis: circular, square, hexagonal, rectangular and trapezoidal with different patch thickness 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 mm. The Heat transfer and coupled temp-displacement analysis has been performed under cure temperature 394 K for in-situ patch repair model. The analysis of the critical von-Mises stress and heat flux load distribution in composite patch repair system allows us to estimate performance in composite patch repair system. The results show that patch shape and size has significant effect on magnitude of heat flux load and induced von-Mises stress. Trapezoidal shape of composite patch repair has lower value of von-Mises stress and heat flux load as compared to all four shapes of composite patches.