Development of Automated Tape Winding Setup for Thermoplastic Fibre Reinforced Polymer Composites and Bi-Axial Creep Testing Setup for Tubular Coupons

• Author / Creator

  Doan, Hai GM

• Polymer composite pipelines are gaining popularity for the advantages they have over steel pipelines such as superior corrosion resistance, higher strength-to-weight ratio and increased flexibility. However, polymer composite pipelines, especially those with a thermoplastic polymer matrix, are more prone to creep. Creep can lead to significant deformation and affect the safe operation of the pipeline. There is limited research in the creep behaviour of fibre reinforced thermoplastic polymer composites in tubular coupon form; previous research has focused mainly on flat coupons or thermoset polymer composite pipes.
  The first part of this thesis describes a manufacturing process to produce thermoplastic fibre reinforced high density polyethylene tubular specimens. The prototyping setup was developed by adding extra equipment to an industrial filament winding machine. Two batches of high-quality, bonded tubular specimens were produced. The quality of the tubes were verified through dimensional measurements, crush tests and analysis of their microstructure.
  The second part of this thesis describes the creep test method developed to determine the long-term behaviour of the material. The specimens were subjected to well-defined loads: 10 MPa pure hoop stress and 5 MPa pure axial compression stress. Two independent measurement techniques, strain gauges and digital image correlation, were employed to measure strain. Strain gauge measurements were in good agreement with theoretical predictions and digital image correlation measurements. The material’s Poisson ratio changed during testing, possibly due to fibre realignment. The observed behaviour agrees with results found in literature. The Burgers model and Findley’s Power Law were found to closely fit the experimental creep data.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • creep
  • tape winding
  • polymer composite

• Graduation date

  Fall 2019

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-8ekw-0n07

• License

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