A simple portable low-pressure healant-injection device for repairing damaged composite laminates

Abstract

This article presents the outcomes of an undergraduate design-for-industry teamdriven project to develop a portable low-pressure healant-injection device. The developed healant-injection device is intended to use for teaching purpose. The students practice some of the techniques of repairing damaged composite laminates, as part of an engineering composite-related course, which mainly covers the fundamentals and applications of composite laminates. The healant-injection device works by introducing resin into damaged site that can assist the healant to flow through the network of micro-cracks in a low-pressure environment. The device comprises three components: a chamber featuring a (rectangular box) cover made from acrylic that is intended to cover a damaged surface in a low-pressure environment, an injection unit and a vacuum pump unit. Only the vacuum chamber was designed from scratch by the team; the other components were sourced commercially. The repair of composite laminates can be performed using a low viscosity resin, which is made to flow through a hole on the roof of the chamber, assisted by the injection unit (fluid dispenser), from which the resin flows into the damaged (micro-cracks) site; the very low pressure environment (25-29 inHg) in the chamber facilitates the removal of air pockets in the cracks. The composite laminates featured in this project are carbon fibre reinforced composite laminates, which are of great interest to the aerospace industry. Testing and evaluation were carried out by the team to assess the performance of the healant-injection device using impacted carbon fibre

Dataset on open/blind hole-hole interaction in barely visible impact damaged composite laminates

“…The data could direct future research relating to the optimization of the design of resin-injection method for repairing damage structures [1] , [2] , as well as new approaches relating to the response of drilling holes in composite materials.…”

Dataset on mechanical properties of damaged fibre composite laminates with drilled vent-holes for resin-injection repair procedure

“…The centre circular hole represented the resin-injection hole; the four white circular holes around the centre hole indicated the vent holes. These holes were drilled after the laminate was subjected to quasi-static indentation (QSI) to generate BVID [1] , [2] . Panel b shows a close-up image of the damage around the respective vent holes.…”

Experimental assessment on the mechanical, physical, thermal, and chemical properties of halloysite and carbon nanoparticles reinforced epoxy resins for repair applications

“…Epoxy resins are extensively utilized in various industries for a wide range of application, such as aircraft structural parts, wind turbine blade materials, automotive materials, owing to their excellent mechanical and physical characteristics 1–5 . In our previous study, the fiber‐reinforced composite laminates were prone to impact damage when in service (i.e., aircraft taxing on the runway) and also damage that has been induced during maintenance 6,7 . The low‐energy impact damage on composite structure (i.e., carbon fiber reinforced thermoset polymer composite, CFRP) was barely visible to the naked eye but the structural integrity was compromised by about 50% reduction in compression strength 8–12 .…”

“…[1][2][3][4][5] In our previous study, the fiber-reinforced composite laminates were prone to impact damage when in service (i.e., aircraft taxing on the runway) and also damage that has been induced during maintenance. 6,7 The low-energy impact damage on composite structure (i.e., carbon fiber reinforced thermoset polymer composite, CFRP) was barely visible to the naked eye but the structural integrity was compromised by about 50% reduction in compression strength. [8][9][10][11][12] To address this issues, several researchers reported that the epoxy resin (also referred to as adhesive) could be used to repair the impact-type damage on the composite materials by using the resin-injection method to restore the mechanical properties of the composite materials to its pristine conditions.…”