Instability analysis of a filament-wound composite tube subjected to compression/bending

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the global buckling of a relatively long composite cord–rubber tube subjected to axial compression and its cross-sectional instability due to bending by a macromechanical nonlinear finite element (FE) model (nonlinear buckling analysis). Composite reinforcement layers are modelled as transversely isotropic ones, while elastomer liners are described by a hyperelastic material model that assumes incompressibility. Force–displacement, equivalent strain, equivalent stress results along with oblateness and curvature results for the complete process have been presented. It is justified that bending leads to ovalization of the cross section and results in a loss of the load-carrying capacity of the tube. Strain states in reinforcement layers have been presented, which imply that the probable failure modes of the reinforcement layers are both delamination and yarn-matrix debonding. There is a significant increase in strains due to cross-sectional instability, which proves that the effect of cross-sectional instability on material behaviour of the tube is crucial. A parametric analysis has been performed to investigate the effect of the member slenderness ratio on cross-sectional instability of the composite tube. It shows that Brazier force is inversely proportional to the slenderness ratio. It further shows that higher oblateness parameters occur in case of a lower slenderness ratio and that cross-sectional instability takes place at a lower dimensionless displacement in case of a lower slenderness ratio. FE results have been validated by a compression/bending test experiment conducted on a tensile test machine.