Composite Overwrapped Pipe Burst Test: Modeling and Experimentation

With the emphasis on lightweighting, composites are being turned to help reduce weight while still maintaining strength and stiffness. However, composites tend to be linear elastic to failure so there is often no warning of failure unlike in metallic components. For this research, a pipe section was fabricated from an Inconel 718 liner with a carbon composite overwrap. The pipe was then subjected to increasing internal pressure until failure. The results from this experiment were used to assist in the creation and validation of a finite element model of the experiment. The model makes use of advanced numerical techniques to predict when failure will occur. This paper will present the fabrication, testing and modeling of this effort.