Advances in the Bonded Composite Repair of Metallic Aircraft Structure
ISBN: 9780080426990
Platform/Publisher: ScienceDirect / Elsevier Science Ltd
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Unlimited; Download: Unlimited

The availability of efficient and cost-effective technologies to repair or extend the life of aging military airframes is becoming a critical requirement in most countries around the world, as new aircraft becoming prohibitively expensive and defence budgets shrink. To a lesser extent a similar situation is arising with civil aircraft, with falling revenues and the high cost of replacement aircraft.

This book looks at repair/reinforcement technology, which is based on the use of adhesively bonded fibre composite patches or doublers and can provide cost-effective life extension in many situations. From the scientific and engineering viewpoint, whilst simple in concept, this technology can be quite challenging particularly when used to repair primary structure. This is due to it being based on interrelated inputs from the fields of aircraft design, solid mechanics, fibre composites, structural adhesive bonding, fracture mechanics and metal fatigue. The technologies of non-destructive inspection (NDI) and, more recently smart materials, are also included. Operational issues are equally critical, including airworthiness certification, application technology (including health and safety issues), and training.

Including contributions from leading experts in Canada, UK, USA and Australia, this book discusses most of these issues and the latest developments. Most importantly, it contains real histories of application of this technology to both military and civil aircraft.

Dr Alan Baker is Research Consultant in Advanced Composite Structures - Australia and Emeritus Research Leader Aerospace Composite Structures, in Air Vehicles Division, DSTO. He is Australian member of the International Editorial Boards of the Journals Composites Part A Applied Science and Manufacturing, Applied Composites and International Journal of Adhesion and Adhesives. He has edited and contributed to several books, chapters in books and many scientific papers on composites and composite repair technology. He co-edited and extensively contributed to the highly popular book: "Composite Materials for Aircraft Structures", published by the American Society for Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and Advances in Bonded Composite Repairs for Metallic Aircraft Structure, published by Elsevier.

Dr. Baker has over 40 years experience in advanced composites including 10 years in the Rolls Royce UK Advanced Research Laboratory; he is particularly recognised for pioneering work on bonded composite repair of metallic aircraft components for which he has received several awards, including the 1990 Ministers Award for Achievement in Defence Science, the 1999 Royal Aeronautical Society (Australia) Hargraves Award and the 1999 Royal Aeronautical Society (UK) Specialist Gold Medal. This repair technology has saved ADF many hundreds of millions of dollars and is being widely exploited world-wide.

Rhys Jones is Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Monash University where he is also Head of the RAAF Directorate General Technical Airworthiness Funded Centre of Expertise in Structural Mechanics. With over 350 fully refereed publications, several books and an H-index of 35 Professor Jones has made significant contributions to the fields of: aircraft structural integrity, fatigue life extension, thermo-elastic stress analysis; fatigue assessment and fracture mechanics; computational mechanics; aging structures; repair technology; Supersonic Particle Deposition (SPD) and composite materials. Professor Jones is internationally acknowledged, together with Dr. Alan Baker, as having played a pioneering role in the development of advanced composites to extend the operational life of Military and Civilian aircraft , , i.e. F111, Mirage III0, B-52, 747, 767, 727 and (Airbus) A-340, and played a leading role in transferring this technology to the US as part of the US Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Aging Aircraft Program . This technology has subsequently been adopted in Australia, Europe and in the USA and has been applied to a large crossection of military aircraft. In 2008 his work on thermoelasicity was chosen by the Australian Chief Defence Scientist as one of the top ten (Australian) Defence Science papers in the period 1907-2007 . As a result of his standing in the field of Fatigue and Fracture and his pioneering work on the use of cold spray to ensure continued airworthiness Professor Jones is a member of the joint Australian Naval Aircraft System Project Office-Directorate General Technical Airworthiness working group formed to transfer Supersonic Particle Deposition Technology to Australian military aircraft.


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