Experimental investigation of filament-wound composite tubes for mechanical characterization by internal pressure testing

This paper presents method for the characterization of composite tubes produced by filament winding technique. The aim of this study is to investigate the mechanical properties by tensile test and under internal pressure loads. For this purpose specimens produced with different orientation having the same reinforcement with two different matrix systems. Data produced experimentally by measuring the mechanical properties like longitudinal tensile and hoop tensile properties, strain in hoop direction and maximum hoop stresses during the hydraulic testing. In order to investigate these parameters, internal pressure tests are done on the filament-wound composite tubes having internal diameter 64.5± 0.5 mm and length 320± 2.0 mm according to ASTM D 1599-99 standard. The tubes for the testing are manufactured by wet filament winding methods of [± 60°] E-glass/Epoxy of various wall thicknesses. Hydraulic tests revealed that the tubes with winding orientation [± 60°]2[±90°]2 exhibits better burst performance compared with others orientations. In addition, factors affecting the behavior of the tubes like buckling, stress variation through wall thickness are discussed.