Damage Tolerance Assessment of Repaired Composite Sandwich Structures

Abstract

Polymer sandwich configuration is now extensively used in many engineering structural applications such as ships, boats, spacecraft and aircraft. The design and manufacturing aspects of such materials are well known and regulations and codes exist to help designers, producers and operators of such artifacts. However, maintenance and repair are issues that have received relatively little attention. The aim of the research is to understand the influence of BVID upon structural repairs made to advanced composite sandwich structures and to determine whether a tapered scarf repair is as damage resistant and damage tolerant as the original structure.