Fatigue crack growth study of CFRP patch repaired Al 2014-T6 panel having an inclined center crack using FEA and DIC. (January 2015) - Srilakshmi, R.
Highlights: In single sided repair one sided patch causes additional bending and mode mixity. In single sided repair non-uniform crack growth profile is observed. Adhesive interface modeled as cohesive zone using contact elements. Double sided repair offered maximum reduction in SIF and higher fatigue life. DIC is found out to be a suitable technique to monitor crack growth accurately. Abstract: In this work, the fatigue life of unrepaired and repaired Al-2014-T6 panels with an inclined center crack is investigated. Cracked panels are repaired through single- and double-sided adhesively bonded carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) patch. The fatigue crack growth is monitored experimentally using digital image correlation and numerically using 3D finite element analysis. The adhesive-interface between the panel and patch is modeled using bilinear cohesive law. The CFRP/Al-2014-T6 adhesive-interface properties are obtained from the baseline tests. Fatigue life of double-sided repaired panel is observed to be twice that of single-sided. And non-uniform crack front is observed in single-sided repaired panels.