Impact Testing on the Pristine and Repaired Composite Materials for Aerostructures

Aircraft technologies and materials have been developing and improving drastically over the last hundred years. Over the last three decades, an interest in the use of composites for external structures has become prominent. For this to be possible, thorough research on the performance of composite materials, specifically the impact performance, have been carried out. For example, research of impact testing for pristine carbon-reinforced epoxy composites mentions matrix cracks, fibre fracture, and delamination as the failure modes that require monitoring. In addition, thorough testing has been carried out on composites repaired with an adhesive bond to observe the effects of conditioning on the adhesively bonded repair. The results suggest there are no major changes in the adhesive under the testing condition. By reviewing the impact testing on the pristine and repaired composite materials for aerostructures, this paper aims to illustrate the main findings and also explore the potential future work in this research scope.