The continuous use of structural polymer composites in the aeronautical industry has required the development of repairing techniques of damages found in different types of laminates. The most usually adopted procedure to investigate the composite laminate repairing has been by repairing simulated damages in laminated composite specimens. This work shows the structural repair technique, scarf type, of a typical carbon/epoxy laminate used in the aeronautical industry, using carbon/epoxy fabric. The carbon/epoxy laminates, with and without repairs, were subjected to two hygrothermal conditioning (ambient: 23 ± 5ºC and 50 ± 5 % of relative humidity, and wet: 65 ± 5ºC and 95 ± 5 % of relative humidity). The repairs were made by using four different overlaps of the carbon fabric plies (9.0; 12.7; 15.0 and 20.0 mm). All repaired families were subjected to tensile tests performed at room and elevated (82ºC) temperatures. The highest tensile strength values were obtained with the laminates repaired by the 15.0 and 20.0 mm overlap, recovering 80.7 and 84.0% of the strength respectively, in relation to the laminate without repair. The conditioning under elevated humidity and temperature decreased the tensile strength up to 90 % of the repaired laminates, favoring the adhesive failure by debonding between the base laminate and the repair.
Polymer composites; repair; laminates; damages
