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Materials Today: Proceedings 4 (2017) 9020–9028 www.materialstoday.com/proceedings

ICAAMM-2016

Effect of Patch Thickness on the Repair Performance of Bonded

Composite Repair in Cracked Aluminum Plate
Sohail M. A. Khana,*, Mahir Essaheba,b
a
Mechanical Engineering Department, College of Engineering, King Saud University, PO Box 800, Riyadh 11421, Saudi Arabia
b
Applied Mechanical Engineering Department, College of Engineering, King Saud University, Mozahmiya Branch, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Bonded composite patch repair of cracked components and weakened aerospace structures has gained high acceptance and
demand. It offers significant advantages over traditional repair methods. These advantages permit a significant increase in fatigue
life. In this study, we investigated experimentally the fatigue crack behavior of V- notched Aluminum 2024-T3 plates, of 2mm
thickness, bonded with single side carbon composite patch configuration. This include the study of the repair efficiency and
fatigue life of cracked samples patched with three different patch thicknesses consisting of 4, 6 and 8 layers, subjected to fatigue
loading. However, to compare and calculate the efficiency of bonding, we studied the behavior of unrepaired configurations. The
experimental results showed that the fatigue life increases with increase in patch thickness. Maximum fatigue life was obtained
for specimen repaired with 8 plies patch which was about 3 folds compared to unrepaired one.

© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Selection and Peer-review under responsibility ofthe Committee Members of International Conference on Advancements in
Aeromechanical Materials for Manufacturing (ICAAMM-2016).

Keywords:Al 2024-T3; Bonded composite repair; Fatigue life; Patch thickness; Stiffness ratio

1. Main text

Due to high demand for repair of aging aircrafts, bonded composite repair has been receiving substantial attention
for decades [1-3]. This method is very promising because it offers significant advantages over traditional repair like
riveting, fastening or stop hole drilling. Bonded composite repair is the bonding of boron or carbon fiber reinforced
epoxy patch onto a cracked or weakened structure. The composites have strength higher than the parent material

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91-966560937824;

E-mail address: mmazheralikhan@ksu.edu.sa

2214-7853© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Selection and Peer-review under responsibility ofthe Committee Members of International Conference on Advancements in Aeromechanical
Materials for Manufacturing (ICAAMM-2016).
 Sohail M. A. Khan / Materials Today: Proceedings 4 (2017) 9020–9028 9021

(adherend) and are adhesively bonded. Composite patches are stronger and stiffer, less weight, have good fatigue
performance and prevent corrosion. The patch reduces stresses in the underlying structure and may retard or arrest
the crack growth. Composite patches are preferred to metallic patch repairs because composites provide better
structural integrity, easier to install, and conform more easily to complex geometries.

The Aeronautical and Maritime Research Laboratory for the royal Australian air force explored the bonded patch
method in early 1970’s. Then, A. Baker pioneered the research in this field [4, 5]. Later on, many researchers
performed experimental and numerical investigations on different parent materials with different patch
configurations [3, 6-10]. Most of them reported that significant decrease in stress intensity factor (SIF) is displayed
after repair. Meanwhile, some authors like Bachir Bouiadjra [11], Fekirini [12], Jones and Chiu[13] showed that the
SIF exhibits and asymptotic behavior with increase in crack length. This behavior is attributed to the fact that there is
stress transfer from the cracked plate to the composite patch throughout the adhesive layer. Concerning the
mechanical properties of the patch, it is known that the boron/epoxy and the carbon/epoxy are used because of their
excellent load transfer characteristics [5]. Parametric studies on repair performance of bonded composite repair have
been reported in the literature. Rachid et. al [8] studied numerical lth effect of patch shapes on the repair
performance. He concluded that pair performance is closely related to patch shape. Albedah et. al [14] conducted
series of test under constant and block loading for perfectly and imperfectly bonded composite patches. They
concluded that the load sequence and imperfections in bonding plays crucial role in the durability of the repair. The
important parameter which requires more attention and systematic investigation is the patch thickness. It is important
to minimize the bending effect in single sided patch repair.

In the last few decades, some scattered research works on the patch thickness effect [15-17] are found in
literature. Most of these early investigations were carried out on thick aluminium plates [16, 17]. The results
reported show that there is significant effect of thickness on repair efficiency of composite patch. However, there is
not adequate work present in the literature on effect of patch thickness in thin aluminium plates. Bachir Bouiadjra et
al. [14, 18] showed numerically that for a single patch repair, the increase of the patch thickness about 50% reduces
the SIFs at the same order and they affirmed that for a better distribution of the stresses, it is preferable to use a
multiple layers of bonded composite patch. In this work, this issue is addressed with a systematic investigation on
the effect of stiffness ratio by varying patch thickness on the repair efficiency for thin aluminium plates (Al 2024-
T3), subjected to constant maximum amplitude loading of 70 MPa. Fatigue life was calculated and compared with
the baseline specimen. The crack growth rates have also been compared. Single side repair has been studied in this
investigation, which is advantageous when it is not possible to access both sides of a weakened structure.

Nomenclature

a crack length
N Number of cycles to failure
S Stiffness ratio
Er Young’s modulus of patch
Ep Young’s modulus of plate
tr thickness of patch
tp thickness of plate

2. Material and Experimental Technique

2.1. Sample preparation

The experimental program conducted in this study includes constant amplitude fatigue tests on unrepaired and
repaired single edged notched tension (SENT) specimen. The specimens, of dimensions 150x50x2 mm, were cut
9022 Sohail M. A. Khan / Materials Today: Proceedings 4 (2017) 9020–9028

from Al 2024-T3 plates in L-T direction. An initial notch of 6mm depth and 600 angle was cut in the center of each
specimen as shown in the Fig. 1 as per ASTM E647 standards [19]. Patches are made of unidirectional carbon/epoxy
pre-pregs of different layers at zero degree cured at 1200C for 90 minutes. Square shaped patches of 50x50 mm were
used throughout this investigation. The surface of SENT specimens was prepared using Bell Process Specification
method [20]. The specimens were repaired with bonded composite patch at three different initial crack lengths (a0 =
3, 6 and 9mm). Three different patch thicknesses (tp),comprises of 4, 6 and 8 plies, with corresponding stiffness
ratios 1.25, 1.6 and 2.0 were investigated in this work. The stiffness ratio S, is defined as

ாೝ ௧ೝ
ܵൌ (1)
ா೛ ௧೛

Where, E is Young's Modulus, t is thickness, and “r and p” are subscripts designating the patch and plate,
respectively.

Fig.1. SpecimenDetails

The pre-cracked specimens were repaired with the composite patches bonded to the specimens using the adhesive
Araldite such that the lay-up principal direction is along the loading direction, as shown in Fig. 1. Material and
geometric properties for the plate material and composite patch are shown in Table 1 and Table 2 respectively.

After cleaning the specimen, Araldite 2000 plus, the epoxy resin, is mixed with Araldite 2015, the polyamine
hardener, in 1:1 ratio. The mixture is applied to pre-cracked area and the composite patch was bonded to it. The
adhesive gets cured without any external heat and thus, prevents the thermal residual stresses. The assembly of
 Sohail M. A. Khan / Materials Today: Proceedings 4 (2017) 9020–9028 9023

aluminium specimen and patch was allowed to cure under pressure for 72 h, without any heat to obtain the full
handling strength.

Table 1.Material Properties.

Material
Properties
Adhesive
Al 2024-T3 Carbon/Epoxy
(Araldite)

Longitudinal Young’s Modulus (GPa) 72.4 130 2.52

Transversal Young’s Modulus (GPa) 72.4 9 2.52

Longitudinal Poisson Ratio 0.33 0.25 0.32

Transversal Poisson Ratio 0.33 0.25 0.32

Table 2.Dimensions of the material used.

Composite
Material Al 2024 Adhesive
Patch
Length (mm) Lp=150 Lr=50 Lr=50

Width (mm) Wp=50 Wr=50 Wr=50

tr=0.18mm
Thickness (mm) tp=2 ta=0.1
per layer

2.2. Test Procedure

Fatigue experiments were carried out on a 100 kN capacity Instron 8801 servo hydraulic machine. The
experimental setup used is shown in the Fig. 2. All tests were performed at room temperature using a sinusoidal
waveform at a loading frequency of 20 Hz. The SENT specimens, both unrepaired and repaired, were loaded
cyclically at two different stress/load ratios of R = 0.1 with a maximum stress amplitude of 70 MPa.

Fig.2. Experimental Setup

9024 Sohail M. A. Khan / Materials Today: Proceedings 4 (2017) 9020–9028

The specimens were pre-cracked to different lengths before repairing with composite patch. The pre-cracking
was accomplished by cycling the specimens. This pre-cracking process was accomplished to ensure that the effect of
the machined starter notch is removed. All samples were bonded under same pressure and temperature conditions to
ensure the adhesive quality, constancy and thickness. Three samples at least were tested for each condition to ensure
the result constancy and accuracy. For each test, the number of cycles with respect to crack length was recorded
using high-speed camera for later processing. Then, the data obtained was processed to produce the fatigue behavior
of the samples as displayed in the results section.

3. Results and Discussions

3.1. Comparison of Fatigue Life

The results obtained from the tests on repaired and unrepaired specimen in L-T direction, subjected to constant
cyclic loading with maximum stress of 70 MPa are presented in Fig. 3. It is evident that bonded composite repair is
an effective way to extend the life of the damaged structures. At a stress of 70 MPa, with patch made of 8 Plies, the
fatigue life has been improved up to 3 folds. The fatigue life of unrepaired specimen was about 126700 cycles,
whereas the fatigue life of specimen repaired at 3mm initial crack length is about 371780 cycles.

50
45 Unrepaired
40 Repaired
Crack Length (mm)

35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
0 50000 100000 150000 200000 250000 300000 350000 400000

No. of Cycles (N)

Fig.3.Fatigue life of unrepaired and repaired specimen (8Plies)

3.2. Comparison of patch thickness

Fig. 4 illustrates the variation of fatigue life as a function of crack length for different patch thicknesses. The
figure shows clearly that an increase in the patch thickness extends the fatigue life of the specimen. This confirms
the results of Schweinberg [21] and Boeing report [22], who concluded that increase in stiffness ratio increases the
fatigue life and decreases the crack growth rate. As stated earlier, three different thicknesses (i.e. 4, 6 and 8 plies)
have been investigated in this study.
 Sohail M. A. Khan / Materials Today: Proceedings 4 (2017) 9020–9028 9025

50
Unrepaired
45
4 Plies
40 6 Plies
8 Plies
Crack Length (mm)
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
0 50000 100000 150000 200000 250000 300000 350000 400000
No. of Cycles (N)

Fig.4. Effect of patch thickness on fatigue life of unrepaired and repaired specimen at R=0.1

The specimen was repaired after creating an initial crack of 3mm length under cyclic loading. Patch with 8 plies
gives the maximum fatigue life which is 3 times that of unrepaired configuration. For our investigation, we cannot
go beyond 8 plies (1.92 mm) because, the thickness of the patch will become more than that of the parent material
(i.e., plate) which is 2 mm thick. The figure also shows that patches with 4 and 6 plies are not quite efficient. Thus
some caution should be considered in their application in order to avoid un-necessary wastage of cost, time and
material.

3.3. Fatigue Crack Growth Rate

In order to analyze the fatigue crack growth, the secant or point-to-point technique is used for computing the
crack growth rate. It involves calculating the slope of the straight line connecting two adjacent data points on the a-
N curve. The data is plotted on a log scale between da/dN vs crack length.
9026 Sohail M. A. Khan / Materials Today: Proceedings 4 (2017) 9020–9028

1.E-05

1.E-06
da/dN (m/ cycles)

1.E-07

Unrepaired
4 Plies
1.E-08
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02
Crack length (m)

Fig.5. FCGR of unrepaired and repaired specimen with patches made of 4 plies

The fatigue crack growth rates variation with crack length for different patch thicknesses is shown in Fig. 5-7 for
both unrepaired and repaired specimens. The data obtained from experimental analysis is plotted on log scale to
observe the fatigue crack growth rates. The figures also display the data fitted with linear regression which matches
with Paris law. It can be observed that the rate of fatigue crack growth is higher for unrepaired specimen compared
to specimen repaired with different patch thickness, (See Fig. 5-7).
1.E-05

1.E-06
da/dN (m/ cycles)

1.E-07

Unrepaired
6 Plies
1.E-08
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02
Crack length (m)

Fig.6. FCGR of unrepaired and repaired specimen with 6plies

 Sohail M. A. Khan / Materials Today: Proceedings 4 (2017) 9020–9028 9027

1.E-05

da/dN (m/ cycles) 1.E-06

1.E-07

Unrepaired
8 Plies
1.E-08
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025
Crack length (m)

Fig. 7. FCGR of unrepaired and repaired specimen with 8plies

The crack growth rate is slower for crack less than 10mm after which, the growth increases more than the
unrepaired ones. This behavior allows us to say that a thicker patch ensures a good stability of the crack by a strong
absorption of the stress field induced at the crack tip.

4. Conclusions

Fatigue crack growth behavior of cracked aluminum 2024-T3 plate with bonded composite patch repair was
experimentally investigated. The fatigue behavior of 2 mm thin SENT specimens repaired with unidirectional
carbon/epoxy patch using Araldite adhesive has been investigated.The obtained results allow us to deduce the
following conclusions:
• Patch thickness has significant effect on fatigue life of repaired specimen.
• The fatigue life for bonded patch increases almost three folds for 8 plies patches.
• Fatigue crack growth rates (FCGR) were higher for unrepaired specimen.
• FCGR reveals beneficial effect of composite patch even for thin plate to extend the life of the damaged or
weakened structure.
• Single-sided patch repair can be a very effective method for a thin cracked plate, while such a significant
improvement in fatigue life cannot be expected when single-sided repair is applied to a thick cracked plate.

Acknowledgments

The authors extend their appreciation to the Deanship of Scientific Research at King Saud University for funding
the work through the research group project No RGP-VPP-036.

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