Effect of Damage Removal and Filling on Repair Efficiency of Patch Repaired Composite Laminates: A Numerical Study

Composite materials are used extensively in high-performance structural applications primarily due to their superior material properties. Composite materials are much more prone to various types of damage and repairing damaged components is inevitable. Adhesively bonded patch repair, i.e. adding an external patch to the damaged area to share the load that strengthens the component, is a simple and cost-effective repair technique. This paper studies how the repair properties will be affected by removing the damaged material and refilling it with epoxy or chopped fiber composite. This study considers two types of damage and three different patch configurations. The impact damage was simulated by finite element analysis using the commercial FEA package ABAQUS®. A progressive damage material model was used to simulate the in-plane behavior. The adhesive behavior at the interface was modelled using cohesive elements. The load-displacement behavior of the specimens repaired with various repair configurations was studied using FEA. It is noted that removing the damaged area and filling it with the chopped fiber composite improves the repair efficiency significantly. More conclusions were derived on whether removing and filling the damaged material with the pristine material improves repair efficiency in various configurations.