Accelerated ageing behaviors of aluminum plate with composite patches under salt fog effect

The present study investigated the salt fog effect on the quasi-static tensile and fatigue properties of the center-cracked aluminum plates which were single-sidedly repaired with Cf/epoxy composite patches. The results show that the salt fog has minimal impact on the quasi-static tensile properties of the epoxy resin and Cf/epoxy composites; while the quasi-static tensile and fatigue properties of the repaired and unrepaired specimens all decrease with the exposure time of the salt fog increasing. Compared to the unrepaired specimens, the repaired specimens have high resistance to salt fog degradation. Within the 0–900 h range of exposure time, the repaired specimens completely fail when the fatigue crack length is equal to the width of the aluminum plate. However, as the exposure time is larger than 900 h, the repaired specimens can still bear fatigue loading when the fatigue crack propagates through the aluminum plate.