Adhesives

• Adhesives should be meeting requirements of TSO, AMs

etc and specified in AMM for that specific repair before
use.
• Types are
• Casein glue
• Synthetic resin adhesive
• Casein glue
• Naturally extracted from milk proteins.
• White powder appearance
• Moisture absorbent and attracts fungus(weakening of
bonding).
Synthetic resin
• Resorcinol
• Only approved adhesive for wooden aircraft sturcutres
• Two part adhesive
• Resin(resorcinol-formaldehyde) and hardener mixed and
applied.
• Specimen clamped until resin hardens.
• Phenol-formaldehyde
• Manufacturing aircraft grade plywood.
• Needs elevated temperature
• Not suitable for structural repairs.
• Heated and hydraulically pressed
• Epoxy
• Epoxy adhesives are a two-part synthetic resin product.
• Penetrate well in woods;less dependent on clamping
pressures.
Protection
• Varnishing used to exclude moisture from the structure
and reduce the possibility of insect attack, the internal
structure
• Clear polyurethane or epoxy varnish.
• While pigmented varnishes make it difficult to spot rot
and cracks in the wooden structural members.
• Properly ventilated and drains holes available to avoid
moisture.
• Prolonged weather exposure leads to weakened qualities
of fabric coating and allows cracks to form.
• Fluctuating weather causes timber shrinkage which
damages glue.
Types of defects
• Wood Decay
• Due to growth of fungus.
• Fungus needs 20% or greater moisture to survive.
• The result of this growth is called decay.
• Fungi absorbs nutrients and tissues leading to
• softness, swelling if still wet, excessive shrinkage
when dry, cracking, and discoloration.
• Repair or replace wood if any amount or form of
decay is found.
Types of defects

• Splitting(cracking) of wood
• Occurs along the fibers.
• Caused by non-uniform shrinkage (decrease in
dimensions) when moisture content lowers.
• Maximum shrinkage along tangent, minimum along
radial and negligible along fibres.
• As the spruce member dries, it attempts to shrink, but
is restrained by the plywood, which shrinks less. The
resulting stress in the spruce member exceeds its
cross-grain strength, and a split occurs.
Types of defects
• Finish failure; (Varnish layer gets damaged) can be the
result of prolonged water exposure, wood splitting,
ultraviolet light exposure, or surface abrasion.
• Brittleness/shrinkages
• These defects are due to the drying out of the
moisture in the timber. This induces stresses in the
glued joints and can cause looseness of metal fittings
or bolts.
• If fluctuating loads are present, this can result in
damage to the wood fibres at the edges of the fittings
or around the bolt holes (caused by hole elongation.
Types of defects
• Glued Joint failures
• Glues are made to take up shear forces.
• For tension/compression loading bolts and nails are
used
• When glued joint subjected to excessive
tensile/compression loading it may fail.
• Testing is difficult as no NDT technique can be used.
• Relative movement between surfaces is indicative of
weakening.
Detection of defects
• Tapping (for indication of hollow and soft surfaces.)
• Borescope: used to inspect inaccessible spots in wings .
• Probing: used to inspect decays that cause small voids
along grains.
• Probing can only be used for initial stage defects.
Detection of defects
• Likely locations of defects
• Cracks in wood spars are often hidden under metal
fittings or metal rib flanges and leading edge skins.
• Reinforced plies should be feathered at ends to avoid
localized stressing (stress raisers)
• Most damage is caused by external influence such as moisture,
temperature extremes, or sunlight
Detection of defects
• All struts attachment points to spur should be inspected
for cracks.
• Fittings used for attachment inspected for
corrosion,loossiness
• Rib attachment nails
• Spar butt attachment fittings
• Fabric splitting leads to removal of fabric and inspection
of underlying structure for damage or decay.
• The usual locations for cracks have been the front spar at
both ends of the reinforcement plate for the lift strut and
the front spar rib attach points.
Detection of defects
• Compression cracks flow in direction perpendicular to
fibres.
• Progresses downwards along the wing.
• The usual locations for cracks have been the front spar at
both ends of the reinforcement plate for the lift strut and
the front spar rib attach points
• Methods to identify compression cracks on spur are
• Borescope inspection via access holes
• Holes are made in fabric for inspection for
compression loading of spurs (mostly between two
spurs)
• Inspected surfaces (for longitudinal and compression
Detection of defects
• An area of grain waviness would indicate a potential
compression failure.
• Loose or missing rib nails can cause damages, (bond
failures etc)
Moisture meters
• Probe is inserted in wood to get reading on digital meter.
• Corrective tables are available to correct for species and
atmospheric temperature.
• 20% plus content is indicative of fungal decay.
NDT of sample bonded joints
• Sample bonded joints
• Left over wood from repair
• Adhesive from same batch used for repair
• The layers are peeled off to test integrity of bond
• Three possible results
• Failure in bind line (cohesive failure)
• Failure along bond line (adhesive failure)
• Ideal strong bonding (wood fibers on both sides of
separated pieces)