Analysis of the adhesive damage between composite and metallic adherends: Application to the repair of aircraft structures

Abstract

In bonded composite repair of aircraft structures, the damage of the adhesive can thus reduce significantly the efficiency and the durability of the bonded composite repair. The adhesive damage models using critical zone have proven their effectiveness due to simplicity and ap-plicability of the damage criteria in these models. The scope of this study is to analyze the effects of the patch thickness and the adhesive thickness on the damage damage in bonded composite repair of aircraft structures by using modified damage zone theory. The obtained results show that, when the thickness of adhesive increases the damage zone increases and the adhesive loses its rigidity, inversely when the patch is reduced the adhesive damage be-comes more significant.