Thermo-mechanical properties of filament wound CFRP vessel under hydraulic and atmospheric fatigue cycling

Mechanical properties of composite pressure vessels under thermo-mechanical conditions were performed by a hydraulic and atmospheric pressure test, respectively. During atmospheric fatigue test, the temperature of the gas and vessel varied remarkably with the pressure, indicating that the vessel was under thermo-mechanical cyclic loadings. Besides, the mechanical properties of the filament wound resin matrix and composition-dependent composites varied significantly throughout the temperature changing range, which could stimulate more damages to the vessel during atmospheric fatigue test than that during hydraulic test characterized by acoustic emission. These damages might lead to a reduction in the final burst pressure of the vessel by 9.6%. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.