Numerical simulation study of fatigue crack growth behavior of cracked aluminum panels repaired with a FRP composite patch using combined BEM/FEM

A combined boundary element method and finite element method (BEM/FEM) is employed to investigate the fatigue crack growth behavior of cracked aluminum panels repaired with an adhesively bonded fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composite patch. Numerical simulation of crack growth process of a cracked aluminum panel repaired with a FRP composite patch under uniaxial cyclic loading has been carried out. The curve of crack length on unpatched side of the cracked panel versus the number of cyclic loading is determined by the numerical simulation, and it agrees well with experimental data. Furthermore, the crack front profiles of the cracked panel during fatigue crack growth and the distributions of stress intensity factors along crack fronts are also numerically simulated.     

Structural Health Monitoring of Cracked Aircraft Panels Repaired with Bonded Patches Using Fiber Bragg Grating Sensors

Structural health monitoring of cracked aircraft panels repaired with bonded patches for extending the service life of aging aircraft has received wide attention. In this paper, the identification of the locations and shapes of fatigue crack and disbond fronts in aircraft panels repaired with double-sided bonded patches using fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors is studied. The identification is performed by minimizing the difference between the detected and calculated reflection spectra of FBG sensors at multiple positions on the free surface of patches. The validity and effectiveness of the identification in practical use is verified by comparing the identification results with the exact ones.