Filament Wound Composite Tubes: Experimental and Numerical Simulations Results

 

Jovan Radulović

Katarina Maksimović

 

This study conducts a failure analysis of filament wound glass reinforced plastic (GRP) pipes made of E glass/polyester under the closed-ended internal pressure. Good agreement was found in comparing the levels of the hydraulic burst pressure of specimens of filament wound tubes made of polyester resin/glass fiber and obtained experimentally and the properties of the tube model, i.e. the values of the pressure at which the initial failure of the tube model occurred, obtained by computation and based on the strength theory for orthotropic laminate composite materials. The hydraulic burst pressure of filament wound tube specimens was obtained using the tool of a specific design, and the calculation of the tube model properties was done by applying the finite element method, the initial failure criterion and the experimentally obtained mechanical properties of the filament wound composite material polyester resin/glass fiber. A successful verification of the computation method of the tube model shows that the mentioned strength theory may be applied with enough reliability to filament wound elements of constructions.

Key words: composite materials, polymers, filament winding, pipe, hydraulic pressure, experimental results, strength analysis, fracture mechanics, numerical simulation, finite element method