Can we save landfills from composites?

    Project Details

    Description

    This preliminary study aims to investigate the mechanical behaviour of composite structures which have been repaired following an impact damage incident. The composite structures are repaired by removing the damaged area using abrasive water jet cutting technique followed by adding a patch of composite material to replace the damaged area. The aim is to provide an alternative to fix composites instead of disposing them in landfills or recycling. Disposal and recycling can be costly, harmful for the environment and does not provide a sustainable solution to the composites waste issue. It is also expected that the UK will aim to ban dumping composites in landfills by 2030 or apply high taxes for doing that. Recycling the damaged composite structure is a better option than disposal, nevertheless, it can be costly and may not provide the same mechanical performance as the original one therefore, they are used in secondary application such as interior parts of an aircraft. Therefore, this work aims to determine whether the performance of the repaired composite structures provided similar performance (impact resistance) to that obtained from the original (pre-repaired) samples.
    StatusFinished
    Effective start/end date1/08/2231/07/23

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