Ring burst test of filament wound composites for environmental resistance

Abstract

The use of filament-wound composites can be advantageous, especially for designing parts of aircraft structures, because of superior mechanical properties of the composites. On the other hand, various experiments are necessary for studying the environmental resistance of composites rather than that of conventional metals. A hoop ring burst test would be a convenient and reliable method for the evaluation of the environmental resistance of a composite pressure vessel. In this research, a method with 24 split disks was developed for estimating the impact and thermal shock resistance of a carbon-fiber-reinforced composite pressure vessel using hoop ring burst specimens subjected to high-speed impact. Impact tests were conducted with a 12.7-mm diameter ceramic ball at a speed of approximately 40–110 m/s. After the impact test, three cycles of thermal shock were conducted on the half of the specimens. C-scan analysis was conducted to determine whether there was any internal damage after the tests. Finally, the hoop ring burst test using 24 split pressure disks was conducted for modified ring specimens. Through this procedure, the proposed method was successfully verified with a number of tests.