Analysis method for bonded patch repair of a skin with a cutout

This study presents an analysis method for determining the transverse shear and normal stresses in the adhesive and in-plane stresses in the repair patch and in the repaired skin. The damage to the skin is represented in the form of a cutout. The circular or elliptical cutout can be located arbitrarily under the patch. The patch is free of external tractions while the skin is subjected to general loading along its external edge. The method utilizes the principle of minimum potential energy in conjunction with complex potential functions to analyze a patch-repaired damage configuration. The present results have been validated against experimental measurements and three-dimensional finite element (FE) predictions concerning the patch repair of a circular cutout in a skin under uniform loading.