Development of New Repair Technologies for Out-of Autoclave Aircraft Composite Components

今天，民用飞机的主要结构中有相当一部分是由复合材料制成的。这种类型的结构大多是通过高压灭菌法制造的。然而，提高生产率和降低制造成本的需要导致了不需要高压灭菌器的新制造技术的发展。新的外压(OOA)预浸料的配方允许在大气压下仅使用真空袋(VBO)进行零件制造。商用飞机设计和制造的这些变化需要新的设计和分析工具、新的检查和维护方法以及新的维修方法。负责损失评估和修复设计的工程师目前没有足够可靠的分析方法或实用工具来设计高置信度的修复。

Today a significant amount of primary structures of civil aircrafts are made of composite materials. This type of structures is mostly manufactured by autoclave processing. However, the need to increase production rate and to lower manufacturing cost have led to the development of new manufacturing techniques that do not require an autoclave. New out-of-autoclave (OOA) prepregs have been formulated to allow part manufacturing using vacuum-bag-only (VBO) under atmospheric pressure. These changes in the design and manufacture of commercial aircraft require new design and analysis tools, new methods of inspection and maintenance, and new repair methodology. Engineers responsible for damage assessment and repair designs currently do not have sufficient reliable analysis methodology or practical tools to design high confidence repairs.