Flexural behaviour of a polyvinyl chloride-lined glass-reinforced plastic composite multi-mitred pipe bend subjected to combined loads: A comparative finite element analysis and experimental case study

Abstract

The flexural behaviour of a glass-reinforced plastic (GRP) multi-mitred pipe bend (MMPB) subjected to combined in-plane bending and internal pressure is presented in this paper. After construction of a polyvinyl chloride (PVC)-lined GRP MMPB, its behaviour subjected to in-plane bending, internal pressure and combined internal pressure and in-plane bending was studied. Small-and large-displacement laminated shell finite element analysis (FEA) results using ABAQUS FE were compared with experiments on an identical specimen. When modelling an MMPB subject to individually applied pressure and bending loads, comparisons exhibited good agreement between linear small-displacement FEA with experimental data. Only large-displacement FEA agreed with experiments when modelling MMPBs subject to combined pressure and bending loads. Large-displacement FEA showed geometrically non-linear behaviour closely matching the experimental trends.