Progressive Failure Analysis for Filament Wound Pressure Vessel

Abstract

An investigation was conducted to study the burst failure of the filament wound pressure vessel composed of T-800 graphite/epoxy. Of particular concern was to predict the propagation of damage after initial failure and the burst pressure of the filament wound pressure vessel as a function of applied load. In the present study a degenerated finite shell element was implemented for the analysis. This element takes into account the variations of the winding angle and the thickness along the meridional line of the vessel. This model can also represent geometrical nonlinear behavior by considering large displacements/large rotations. In order to predict the burst pressure, a progressive failure analysis was performed by using a failure criteria with a property degradation model. Experiments were also conducted to measure the strains and the burst pressure of the filament wound pressure vessel. A fairly good agreement was obtained between the analysis and the test results.