Engineering Science and Materials Commons^™

Fatigue Response Of Thin Stiffened Aluminum Cracked Panels Repaired With Bonded Composite Patches, Jason B. Avram

Theses and Dissertations

This research investigated the fatigue response of precracked and patched 2024-T3 Aluminum panels with stiffeners. Patches were single-sided, unidirectional three ply boron/epoxy. Stiffeners were 2024-T3 aluminum and were riveted and bonded on. Disbonds were introduced into the repair bondline by inserting teflon strips. Three disbond configurations were investigated rack tip disbond (CTD) located at the edge of the patch in the path of crack propagation, full-width disbond (FWD) covering the entire crack, and end disbond (ED) located at each end of the patch and covering the full width. Each repaired panel was subjected to tension/tension cyclic fatigue with a maximum …