Design and Analysis of a New Frangible Composite Cover with a High Ratio of External to Internal Load-Bearing Limit

A new circular plate frangible composite cover was designed. The cover had a weak zone with embedded bonding structure to achieve the required one-way locking function. Eleven types of frangible covers with different structural parameters were fabricated by vacuum-assisted hand lay-up process. Experiments under bursting and external pressure loads were carried out. Both static and dynamic analyses were performed. The results showed that the frangible cover could achieve a high ratio of external to internal load-bearing limit under the premise of compact structure and small occupation. The ratio rose from 2.51 to 3.61 when the layer number of the separation part increased from 6 to 14. The ratio was 49.5% and 73.84% higher than the one of two types of cover reported in literature. Numerical results, including failure process, were in good agreement with the experimental ones. The influence of the parameters of embedded flange structures on the bursting failure load was also investigated.

Automated summary

A new circular frangible composite cover with a one-way locking function was designed and fabricated. The cover showed a high ratio of external to internal load-bearing limit and its performance was better than two types of covers reported in literature.