Repair of Impacted Thermoplastic Composite Laminates Using Induction Welding

Vedant Modi, Aswani Kumar Bandaru, Karthik Ramaswamy, Conor Kelly, Conor McCarthy, Tomas Flanagan, Ronan O’Higgins

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

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.

Original languageEnglish
Article number3238
JournalPolymers
Volume15
Issue number15
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2023

Keywords

  • CF/PEEK
  • CF/PEKK
  • carbon fibre reinforced thermoplastics
  • compression after impact
  • fusion bonding
  • induction welding
  • repair

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