Repair of an aluminum plate with an elliptical hole using a composite patch

In this paper, the stress on axially loaded metal sheets with elliptical holes reinforced by a double-sided composite patch was analysed. The metal sheets with elliptical holes were subjected to axial loading, although no load was applied along the edges of the holes. The central elliptical holes on the metal plates had different diameters. The overlap distance of composite patches, which were adhesively bonded on each side, was of varied lengths. Elasto-plastic stress analyses were examined by means of the finite element method (FEM). The experimental results were compared with numerical results and a convergence rate of 92 % was achieved.