Bonded-bolted combination repair of a composite fuselage section

Composite repair is an area of great importance, especially in the aerospace industry, due to the fact that an increasing number of modern aircrafts are utilizing these materials in larger quantities and in numerous areas in an effort to take advantage of their superior mechanical and physical properties. However, as result of their higher costs when compared to metals, replacing damaged structures could be a costly endeavour which is why composite repair is an excellent avenue to explore. This project aims to examine the suitability of a bonded-bolted combination repair for a damaged fuselage section through simulation by means of a finite element analysis on a CAD model. Catia V5 was used to create the model and the analysis was done in Ansys workbench. The repair section was compared with an undamaged section and after the application of pressure loads, the results indicated that there was a 10% increase in the stress and structural deformation of the repaired model when compared to the undamaged model. In addition, the stress in the materials used in the model was below that of their endurance limit.