Battle damage repair of a helicopter composite frame-skin junction. Part 1: Depot repair

The Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO), Australia, Delegation Generale Pour L’Armement (DGA), France and Eurocopter have carried out collaborative research in the area of battle damage repair techniques for military helicopter structures. Australian and French participants have focused on depot and field repairs, respectively. This paper summarises the research conducted at DSTO to develop battle damage repair methods for a helicopter composite frame-skin junction (FSJ) subjected to damage caused by a typical threat weapon. A generic BDR design approach was successfully applied, which involved use of a reverse engineering approach to determine the load requirements, application of a rapid repair design approach, and validation of the design using finite element analyses and experimental testing.