Numerical/experimental impact events on filament wound composite pressure vessel

Abstract

Impacts on pressure vessels, produced by winding glass fibre with vinyl ester resin over a polyethylene liner, were numerically and experimentally investigated in the current work. Pressure vessels were experimentally tested under low velocity impact loads. Different locations and incident energies were tested in order to evaluate the induced damage and the capability of the developed numerical model. An advanced 3-D FE model was used for simulating the impact events. It is based on the combined use of interlaminar and intralaminar damage models. Puck and Hashin failure theories were used to evaluate the intralaminar damages (matrix cracking and fibre failure). Cohesive zone theory, by mean of cohesive elements, was used for modelling delamination onset and propagation. The experimental impact curves were accurately predicted by the numerical model for the different impact locations and energies. The overall damages, both intralaminar and interlaminar, were instead slightly over predicted for all the configurations. The model capabilities to simulate the low velocity impact events on the full scale composite structures were proved.