Fatigue crack growth study of CFRP patch repaired Al 2014-T6 panel having an inclined center crack using FEA and DIC

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.