Development of tubular knitted fabric-reinforced composite pipes

In literature, there exist many investigations about the application of knitted textiles as a reinforcement material in composites. Although majority of them are mainly centered on flat plates, tubular knitted fabric is used in current study to develop composite pipes. Produced composite pipes are subjected to axial compression before and after 5J impact test. Force-time and force-displacement curves are obtained, and compression stress is calculated according to wall thicknesses of the pipes. It is observed that the interlacing of yarns in knitted tubular fabric through the thickness direction increases the splitting toughness of composite pipes. Although the compression failure takes place as buckling in both nonimpacted and impacted composite pipes, damage propogation in the transverse direction is not observed. The results of the study are presented in detail.