Experimental and numerical study of repair techniques for panels with geometrical discontinuities

The aim of this work is to study analytically and experimentally the application of bonded composite technology to reduce stresses at commonly occurring stress concentrations such as holes and notches. The mechanical behaviour of several plates with notches of various forms is investigated by tensile tests. The finite element analysis of these plates is performed to determine the stress concentration factors as well as the stress distributions. The notched plates are reinforced by bonding single sided and double sided patches. The results of the tensile test show that the composite patch reinforcements increase the mechanical characteristics of resistance of the notched plates but on the other hand there is a loss in the overall deformation. The patch reinforcement reduces the stress concentration and the stress concentration factor at the notch.