Process parameters effect on the edgewise compressive behavior of repaired honeycomb sandwich structures

Three different repair methods were adopted in the paper to restore the mechanical performance of composite honeycomb sandwich panels with different initial damages, and an experimental study was conducted to compare the edgewise compressive capacities of repaired specimens. Test results demonstrate that all these repair methods can recover the edgewise compressive strength of specimens effectively, and the strength recoveries are all above 79% of the intact panel level. In order to analyze experimental results, k-sample Anderson-Darling test was introduced to investigate the influence of process parameters on edgewise compressive strength of repaired specimens. Test results show that middle-temperature cure can hardly affect the edgewise compressive performance of repaired specimens. However, the edgewise compressive strength is higher for specimens cured by autoclave, but the improve extent is influenced by the effective height of the repair region. Besides, unsymmetrical repair structures should be adopted cautiously to avoid the mechanical performance degradation induced by the additional bending moment.