Failure Mechanisms in Pressurised Fibre Wound Tubes

Abstract

An investigation into the effects of artificially induced defects on the failure mechanisms of glass fibre reinforced plastic tubes has been carried out. A fracture mechanics approach was used in the analysis of the results. The failure pressures of the tubes were found to obey equations in existence for isotropic materials. The failure mechanisms of the combined tube and defect types are discussed. The mechanisms were found to vary according to these variations. The values of Young's modulus and Poisson's ratio determined for the compliance analysis were compared to the predictions of two theories. This indicated that the theories were reasonable for the predictions of Young's modulus, but of little use for the prediction of Poisson's ratio. The defect sizes were too small to obtain an accurate compliance analysis to be compared to those of isotropic materials.