The hard-patch approach to scarf repairs involves adhesively bonding a pre-formed patch into the scarf cavity. This approach has several potential advantages compared with the conventional soft-patch approach, which involves forming the patch from pre-preg and co-bonding it with the adhesive during cure of the patch directly in the repair cavity. Two methods for producing the hard-patch were investigated. The first was the moulded approach where the patch was laid up in a mould and cured prior to bonding in the repair cavity. The development and implementation of the moulded hard-patch repair technique on an F/A-18 horizontal stabiliser is described. The second approach involves machining the patch from a composite panel using digitised data obtained from the use of surface profiling equipment to capture the scarf cavity surface. Micrographic techniques were used to assess critical features of the bond-line produced from the different techniques. The results are compared with microscopic studies from a second F/A-18 horizontal stabiliser that was repaired much earlier using the soft-patch approach. Each repair is assessed in terms of the consolidation of plies along the bond-line and the conformity of the patch to the repair cavity as well as adhesive uniformity and porosity.


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    Title :

    Micrographic studies on adhesively bonded scarf repairs to thick composite aircraft structure


    Contributors:
    Whittingham, B. (author) / Baker, A.A. (author) / Harman, A. (author) / Bitton, D. (author)


    Publication date :

    2009


    Size :

    14 Seiten, 16 Bilder, 3 Tabellen, 15 Quellen




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Print


    Language :

    English




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