Study of the feasibility of "healing" delaminations in an AS4/PEEK composite plate

This paper describes the study carried out to determine the possibility of healing an AS4/PEEK composite plate that was impacted at a low velocity to create the delaminations. Images of the AS4/PEEK composite plates were obtained prior to the impact, to ensure it is free of any gross defects that could have been imparted during the manufacturing of the composite plate. A drop-weight was used to impact the composite plate at a low velocity and the incident energy of impact was maintained at 2.26 ft-lb. Interior images of the composite plates were obtained after the impact and prior to healing by a C-scan imaging system. The healing process was conducted at controlled temperature and pressure. The healed specimens were imaged again by the C-Scan imaging system. The results obtained by analyzing the images show a reduction in the size of the delaminations.