Tensile behavior of composite laminates with one-side bonded repair

The tensile failure mechanism of composite laminates with the damage of a hole was studied after being repaired with one-sided bonding. The out-of-plane displacement of the center point of the repaired laminates, tensile strength and strain distribution were measured. The influence of the patch size and thickness on tensile strength of the repaired laminates was examined experimentally. The results demonstrate that increasing the patch thickness and its diameter can improve motherboard tensile strength. However, enhancing the thickness of the patch will increase the out-of-plane displacement of the laminates. When undertaking computational analysis of one-side bonded laminates without any support on the unloaded side, it is necessary to consider the effects of the bending moment resulted from the eccentric load. A three-dimensional finite element analysis was performed to detect the failure mechanism and predict the tensile strength of the repaired specimens with delamination criterion. It was found that the failure began in the first interface of the motherboard under the patch at the edge of hole or the patch. The analysis data are good agreement with the test results.