Evaluating mechanical performance of GFRP pipes subjected to transverse loading

Abstract

The main objective of this research is to investigate the damage progression and the failure mechanism of Glass-Fiber Reinforced-Plastic (GFRP) pipes subjected to compressive transverse loading. An experimental study is performed to observe the level of diametric deflection where failure takes place under transverse loading and also to monitor experienced failure mode. Then, conducted experimental study is simulated in commercial finite element software taking into account both interlaminar and intralaminar failure modes, simultaneously.The degree to which the pipe can withstand diametric deflection without experiencing any failure mode is extracted. Then, appropriate in-plane failure criteria are chosen for identifying the onset of in-plane failure mode while cohesive approach is employed for identifying the initiation of delamination as the out-of-plane failure mode. Results of numerical simulation reveal that the liner is debonded from its adjacent hoop layer at 27% diametric deflection which is in a reasonable agreement with experimentally observed 31%. Moreover, the magnitude of the reaction force at 5% diametric deflection is obtained as 1242 N which is in a good agreement with experimentally measured 1225 N. Therefore, a satisfactory level of accuracy is achieved in constructed model implying on the appropriate modeling of damage progression. Finally, a parametric study is conducted to investigate the influence of various effective parameters on the pipe resistance level against transverse loading wherein neither in-plane nor out-of-plane failure is experienced.