Performance level and life span of existing structural elements can be increased by repair and strengthening of these structural elements using advanced composite materials.The performance of damaged metallic plates reinforced with fiber-reinforced polymer composite materials (composite patch) are presented in this study. A square aluminum plate with a central circular cutout is considered as a damaged structural element. Numerical studies using commercial finite element code were conducted to investigate the effects of variation in patch geometries and lamination parameters on buckling responses of repaired plates. The varying laminate parameters such as, fiber angles and stacking sequences are considered in this study. A quantitative measure for the effectiveness of the composite patches is taken to be the relative change in buckling loads of the reinforced plates compare to those of the perfect one. The results presented herein indicated that, for buckling response of a repaired metallic plate with central cutout, a set of laminated composite patches with different shape and stacking sequences can be found which improve load carrying capacity of damaged plates.

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