A Review of Damage Tolerant Design, Certification and Repair in Metals Compared to Composite Materials
A review of some of the various fatigue models introduced over the years for both metallic materials, in particular aluminium alloys followed by fatigue and durability concerns associated with composite materials. The move towards light weight and high stiffness structures that have good fatigue durability and corrosion resistance has led to the rapid move from metal structures to composite structures. With this brings the added concern of certifying new components as the damage mechanisms and failure modes in metals differ significantly than composite materials such as carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP). The certification philosophy for composites must meet the same structural integrity, safety and durability requirements as that of metals. Hence this is where the challenge now lies. Substantial work has been conducted in the reparability of composite structures through bonding using various adherend thicknesses and joint types and has been shown to have higher durability than mechanically fastened repairs for thin adherends however these are currently unacceptable repair methods as they cannot be certified. Repairs are designed on the basis that the repair efficiency can be predicted and should be designed conservatively with respect to the various failure modes and include the surrounding structure.