Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 February 2013
Fiber metal laminates (FMLs) are widely used in aerospace industries nowadays. Repairingof the cracks in these advanced materials was first done by some aeronautical laboratoriesin early 1970s. In this study, experimental investigations were done on the effect ofrepairing the center-cracked aluminum plates using the FML patches. The repairingprocesses were conducted to characterize the response of the repaired structures totensile tests. The composite patches were made of one aluminum layer and two wovenglass-epoxy composite layers. Three different crack lengths in three crack angles anddifferent patch lay-ups were examined. It was observed that no matter what the cracklength was, the more the crack angle is larger, the more ultimate tensile strength of thestructure became. It was also indicated that the patch lay-up had an important effect onthe tensile response of the repaired specimens. When the aluminum layer of the patches wasfarther from the repair zone, the ultimate tensile strength reached to its maximum value.