Joining of fiber‐reinforced polymer tubes for high‐pressure applications

Abstract Fiber‐reinforced polymer composites offer superior performance particularly in harsh environments; hence, they are recognized as an attractive material, especially for the transportation of pressurized fluids. However, an extensive use of these composites has been hampered, in part due to unsatisfactory solutions for the joining of subcomponents, and insufficient knowledge on the associated damage behavior. A favorable connection design for a piping system can be an adhesively bonded joint. In this study, a unique adhesive injection technique is presented that joins composite pipe sections using filament‐wound overlap sleeve couplers. The purpose of the present study was to characterize the performance and associated damage behavior of a prototype‐size pipe structure joined by the above procedure. Internal pressure and axial traction were applied to specimens at various biaxial ratios. In addition to the experimental investigation, the joint geometry was also modeled numerically employing the finite element technique. This yielded a better understanding of the damage behavior and enabled a parametric study that provided recommendations for an improved joint design. POLYM. COMPOS., 27:99–109, 2006. © 2005 Society of Plastics Engineers