Characterization of disbond effects on fatigue crack growth behavior in aluminum plate with bonded composite patch

The fatigue response of pre-cracked 2024-T3 Alclad aluminum panels repaired with bonded boron/epoxy composite reinforcements was investigated. A completely bonded reinforcement and four partially bonded reinforcement configurations were tested. The effects of various disbond locations and sizes were studied and compared to each other as well as to panels with a completely bonded reinforcement and to cracked panels without any reinforcement. The results demonstrated that there is a definite variation in fatigue life depending on the location and size of the disbonds. However, crack growth characteristics also revealed that partially bonded composite repairs are fairly damage tolerant of the pre-existing disbonds in the bondline of the repair. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.