Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Technical Review Vol. 53 No. 4 (December 2016)
82

Development of Quick Repair Method for
Aircraft Composite Structures

MASAYOSHI SUHARA*1

TAKAYUKI SHIMIZU*2

KOICHI HASEGAWA*3

TOSHIKAZU SHIGETOMI*4MASAKAZU KAMIBAYASHI*5 YUKIHIRO SATO*6

This paper presents a quick repair method for composite structures mainly developed foraircraft. Existing repair methods use uncured prepreg for repair patches and it takes a long time toform and cure the repair patches. The developed method uses pre-cured thin repair patches
between which glue is applied. To perform repairs, these patches are formed to fit the area to berepaired, attached to the area and are then pressurized under atmospheric pressure. Next, the glueis heated and cured using a heater mat. For verification of the feasibility of the developed method,a bonding quality confirmation test, an inspectability confirmation test and a strength test wereimplemented and the validity of the developed method was confirmed. This technology reduces therepair time of a composite structure by approximately 70% in comparison to existing methods, andtherefore allows damaged aircraft to return to operation more quickly.

|1. Introduction
Composite materials with high specific strength, excellent fatigue characteristics and great
corrosion resistance have been increasingly used for aircraft structures, etc. When struck bylightning or damaged by an impact, a composite material structure may lose its strength and thus
require repair. It is anticipated that such repair cases will increase as the use of composite materials
expands. When damage to an aircraft occurs, the aircraft must be returned to operation as soon as
possible after recovering the necessary quality. However, existing repair methods have thefollowing problems(1).
Prepreg scarf repair, which is one of the typical repair methods for composite structures,
requires the removal of the damaged area, cutting and laminating uncured prepreg so that it fits thearea to be repaired and the application of heat under a vacuum to facilitate curing. However, thismethod takes a long time for the preparation of the area to be repaired, the fabrication of the repair
patch and for heating and curing.
Wet lay-up repair is another widely-used repair method. However, this method requires thelamination of resin-impregnated fibers at the work site and therefore tends to generate variations inquality, such as the presence of unfilled voids, depending on the skill of the worker. As a result,problems with difficulty in the management of repair quality occur.
There is also a repair method that uses pre-cured repair patches. When using this method, theshape of the repair patch is generally required to conform to the shape of the area to be repaired toachieve good bonding quality. Because the shape of the area to be repaired varies, however, it isdifficult to prepare repair patches in all shapes in advance.
As such, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) developed a repair method that uses
*1*2*3*4*5*6Strength Research Department, Research & Innovation Center
Chief Staff Manager, Strength Research Department, Research & Innovation Center
Manufacturing Technology Research Department, Research & Innovation Center
Materials Research Department, Research & Innovation Center
Materials Research Department, Research & Innovation Center
Strength Research Department, Research & Innovation CenterMitsubishi Heavy Industries Technical Review Vol. 53 No. 4 (December 2016)83

pre-cured thin repair patches to facilitate the improvement of both the quality and the repair time.
This paper presents the development of the new method, confirmation of its quality and strengthand the results of the verification of its validity.
In this paper, a method using multiple thin pre-cured patches that provides a short repair timeand stable quality has been proposed, and the feasibility of the method is presented.

|2. Developed repair method
Figure 1 shows a summary of the developed repair method. First, thin pre-cured repair
patches are prepared in advance.

Figure 1

Concept of the proposing repair

When a structural repair is needed, these patches are piled up on the repair area with theinsertion of adhesive films between them and the structure to be repaired. Then the area is covered
with a bag film and the air in the bag is removed using a vacuum pump to pressurize the repair area
under atmospheric pressure. Next, the area is heated using a heater mat, etc., in order to cure theglue.
This method can reduce the time necessary for the fabrication of repair patches that need tofit the repair area, heating and curing. As shown in Figure 2, the repair time of composite
structures for identical damage is reduced by approximately 70% in comparison to existing
methods (prepreg scarf repair). The thin repair patches easily follow the shape of the area to berepaired, due to the atmospheric pressure, even when there is a difference in shape. After the glue iscured, the repair patches unite into a single structure that has enough flexural rigidity to resist
buckling. In addition, the repair patches can be fabricated in a well-equipped factory and therefore
the fabrication of high-quality repair patches can be expected.
The repair time of this method is calculated on the assumption that the removal of thedamage to be repaired is unnecessary. For this assumption, it is necessary that the damage can beleft unremoved by confirming that the damage does not progress during the service.

Figure 2

Comparison of repair times|3. Quality confirmation test
To confirm the bonding quality of a repair area, a repaired CFRP panel was prepared andmicroscopic observation of its cross section was performed.

3.1

Test conditions
The material used for the repair patches was TR6821H106FMA (produced by Mitsubishi

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Rayon Co., Ltd.), which was semi-cured prepreg made by impregnating medium-elasticity carbon
fiber five-harness satin with epoxy resin. The pre-cured patches used were fabricated in an
autoclave by curing two laminated products, each of which was made by laminating four layers ofthe prepreg on a flat forming tool. The glue used was FM300-2M film glue (produced by CytecIndustries.), and was applied between the two pre-cured repair patches and between the patches andthe structure to be repaired.
The structure to be repaired was a CFRP panel with a curvature radius of 1600 mm. As
shown in Figure 3, the area to be repaired was covered with a bag film and the air was removed
from the bag using a vacuum pump to pressurize the repair area under atmospheric pressure. Next,
heat was applied using a heater mat, etc., in order to cure the glue.
After the glue was cured, the panel was cut and polished and then its cross section wasobserved using a microscope.

Figure 3

3.2

Condition of quality check test

Test results

Two cross sections, one of which was the area with the minimum curvature radius, wereobserved. As a result, the unfilled void rate of the bonding layer was 0.3% or less. This is far
smaller than the 1% to 2%, which is generally considered as the threshold for the deterioration ofshear strength, and therefore it was confirmed that the bonding quality was good (Figure 4).

Figure 4

Results of quality check test

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Technical Review Vol. 53 No. 4 (December 2016)85|4. Inspectability confirmation test
It is necessary to perform a reliable nondestructive inspection in order to inspect the bondingarea repaired by the developed method. We confirmed the applicability of a typical ultrasonic flaw
detection method.

4.1

Test conditions

A test piece that has the same shape as the test piece used for the quality confirmation test
was used for this test and eight artificial flaws inserted into the panel repair bonding area tofacilitate the simulation of delamination as shown in Figure 5. The inspectability of the artificial
flaws in the panel was checked with a pulse reflection method using the typically-used ultrasonicflaw detection device UI-23 manufactured by Ryoden Shonan Electronics Corporation and a probe.
Table 1 shows the test conditions.

Table 1Condition of ultrasonicinspection

UT method
Coupling medium
Frequency
UT probe
Size

Pulse echo reflection
Water
5MHz0.25”

Figure 5 Specimen with artificial defects andultrasonic inspection method

4.2

Test results

Figure 6 shows the testing situation and Figure 7 shows the obtained waveform sample. As
shown in these figures, the back wall echo could be identified clearly in the general portion, and theamplitude at reflection pulse on the artificial flaw was less than half of the general portion. In thisway, the presence of the flaw could be detected. The same results were obtained for the other flaws,
and therefore it was confirmed that flaws in this repair bonding area can be detected with anultrasonic flaw detection method using a typical device.

Figure 6

Setup of ultrasonic inspection of specimen

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Figure 7

Results of ultrasonic inspection|5. Strength testTensile tests were implemented in order to confirm that the repair bonding area had sufficientstrength.

5.1

Test piece

Figure 8 shows the shape of the test piece used for this test. The tests were actually
performed to simulate a curved area repaired by attaching flat patches, but a strength test of acurved structure is difficult to carry out. Therefore the repair patches were formed to the shape
curved oppositely to the simulated repair area as shown in Figure 9 in advance, and then attachedon the both sides of a flat repair panel in a similar process to that described in section 2. In thisway, residual stress on the repaired area unique to a repair in which this repair method is used
under the condition where the shape of the repair patches differs from that of the area to be repaired
was applied to a straight test piece, which can be easily strength tested.

Figure 8 Tensile strength test specimen

Figure 9

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5.2

Test conditions

Figure 10 shows the testing situation. The tests were conducted with displacement control
using an INSTRON5889 test machine. In this test, a single-axis tensile load was applied at thespeed of 2 mm/min under the test environment of normal temperature and normal humidity until
destruction occurred. Three test pieces were tested under the same conditions.

Figure 105.3

Setup of tensile strength test

Test results

Table 2 shows the test results. Figure 11 shows a photograph of the test piece after
destruction. The failure mode was interlayer shearing of the repair patch or the repaired material
along the bonding area between the repaired structure and the repair patches, and no interface
destruction occurred. Therefore it was confirmed that the bonding area generated by this repair
process has sufficient bonding strength.
Table 2No.
1
2
3
Average

Tensile strength test results
Repair patch stress at Failure(MPa)
455
478
458
464

Figure 11 Tensile strength test specimens afterfailure|6. Conclusion
This paper presented the development of a new repair method that uses pre-cured thin repair
patches, as well as confirmation of the feasibility of the developed method through a quality
confirmation test, an inspectability confirmation test and a strength test. In the future, we will
implement checks of the effects from environmental conditions such as temperature and humidity
and the damage tolerance. These checks are necessary for application to aircraft structures.
Practical application of this method realizes the quick repair of damage to an aircraft, and therefore
allows the aircraft to return to operation earlier than before.

References
1.

Y. Yoshida. 2016. “CFRP Repair after 787 Delivery,” presented at the 7th JCCM, March 16-17.