Easy repair of interlaminar damage using interleaved carbon fibre/epoxy composites

Laminated carbon fibre/epoxy composites are susceptible to interlaminar damage when impacted. An easy repair concept for such damage using an interleaving concept has been proposed. Trials of polylactide (PLA)-interleaved composite have previously been conducted to investigate the repair effectiveness of this material in three-point flexure testing and have shown a strength recovery of up to 90%. This paper reports on a further investigation of the PLA-interleaved composite for the repair of interlaminar damage caused in static indentation testing. Another interleaved composite using thermoplastic polyurthane (TPU) interleaves has been tested in three-point flexure has shown excellent strength recovery on repair.