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Abstract
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Adhesively bonded repairs are frequently used
to repair aluminum structures due to their attractive options
compared to traditional methods such as welding or riveting.
A new method of increasing the repair’s strength
against uniaxial tensile loads is used in this study. For this
purpose, standard single-strap (SS) and double-strap (DS)
repairs were produced with aluminum patch. In the first
step, an epoxy-based adhesive was employed to create SS
and DS repairs using neat adhesive and 0.5 wt.% reduced
graphene oxide (RGO)-reinforced adhesive. Afterward,
samples of SS and DS joints with the reinforced adhesive
were manufactured to study the effect of the added RGO.
Uniaxial tensile tests were conducted and above 30%
enhancement in the ultimate load was observed in the joints
bonded with reinforced adhesive. The repaired joints were
analyzed by finite element (FE) method using cohesive
zone modeling technique to obtain failure loads. For this
purpose, two sets of tests (a) double cantilever beam and
(b) end notch flexure tests were implemented to estimate
the cohesive zone model CZM parameters. Comparing the
results obtained from experiments and the numerical simulations
shows that FE models accurately predict the
failure load in the reinforced and unreinforced repaired
joints.
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