Author(s)

S. Djellal & A. Ouibrahim

Abstract

This paper concerns an experimental investigation, conducted to estimate the aerodynamic effects of aircraft battle-damage repair patches. Of particular concern in this study are the wings. Three different repair schemes are considered, lower (repair at the intrados), upper (repair at the extrados) and full repairs (both intrados and extrados at the same time). Preliminary results clearly showed that repair patches improve the aerodynamic performances of the damaged aircraft model. The full repair was shown to achieve the best recovery of the aerodynamic performances provided that the patch is thin enough. Repairs performed on only one surface (i.e. upper or lower) were also shown to provide significant aerodynamic improvements. The improvement tendency decreases with the increase of the patch thickness. Above a certain thickness value, the fineness decreases below the fineness of the damaged unrepaired model. Keywords: aerodynamic performance, battle-damage, fineness, patch, repair.

Keywords

aerodynamic performance, battle-damage, fineness, patch, repair.