TY - JOUR
T1 - Repair of Impacted Thermoplastic Composite Laminates Using Induction Welding
AU - Modi, Vedant
AU - Bandaru, Aswani Kumar
AU - Ramaswamy, Karthik
AU - Kelly, Conor
AU - McCarthy, Conor
AU - Flanagan, Tomas
AU - O’Higgins, Ronan
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 by the authors.
PY - 2023/8
Y1 - 2023/8
N2 - The lack of well-developed repair techniques limits the use of thermoplastic composites in commercial aircraft, although trends show increased adoption of composite materials. In this study, high-performance thermoplastic composites, viz., carbon fibre (CF) reinforced Polyetherketoneketone (PEKK) and Polyether ether ketone (PEEK), were subjected to low-velocity impact tests at 20 J. Post-impact, the damaged panels were repaired using an induction welder by applying two different methods: induction welding of a circular patch to the impacted area of the laminate (RT-1); and induction welding of the impacted laminates under the application of heat and pressure (RT-2). The panels were subjected to compression-after-impact and repair (CAI-R), and the results are compared with those from the compression-after-impact (CAI) tests. For CF/PEKK, the RT-1 and RT-2 resulted in a 13% and 7% higher strength, respectively, than the value for CAI. For CF/PEEK, the corresponding values for RT-1 and RT-2 were higher by 13% and 17%, respectively. Further analysis of the damage and repair techniques using ultrasonic C-scans and CAI-R tests indicated that induction welding can be used as a repair technique for industrial applications. The findings of this study are promising for use in aerospace and automotive applications.
AB - The lack of well-developed repair techniques limits the use of thermoplastic composites in commercial aircraft, although trends show increased adoption of composite materials. In this study, high-performance thermoplastic composites, viz., carbon fibre (CF) reinforced Polyetherketoneketone (PEKK) and Polyether ether ketone (PEEK), were subjected to low-velocity impact tests at 20 J. Post-impact, the damaged panels were repaired using an induction welder by applying two different methods: induction welding of a circular patch to the impacted area of the laminate (RT-1); and induction welding of the impacted laminates under the application of heat and pressure (RT-2). The panels were subjected to compression-after-impact and repair (CAI-R), and the results are compared with those from the compression-after-impact (CAI) tests. For CF/PEKK, the RT-1 and RT-2 resulted in a 13% and 7% higher strength, respectively, than the value for CAI. For CF/PEEK, the corresponding values for RT-1 and RT-2 were higher by 13% and 17%, respectively. Further analysis of the damage and repair techniques using ultrasonic C-scans and CAI-R tests indicated that induction welding can be used as a repair technique for industrial applications. The findings of this study are promising for use in aerospace and automotive applications.
KW - CF/PEEK
KW - CF/PEKK
KW - carbon fibre reinforced thermoplastics
KW - compression after impact
KW - fusion bonding
KW - induction welding
KW - repair
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85167817899&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/polym15153238
DO - 10.3390/polym15153238
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85167817899
SN - 2073-4360
VL - 15
JO - Polymers
JF - Polymers
IS - 15
M1 - 3238
ER -