Micromechanics, damage and life prediction of carbon fibre composite pressure vessels

Sébastien Blassiau (1, 2) , Anthony R. Bunsell (1) , Alain Thionnet (1, 3)

1 CDM - Centre des Matériaux
2 Gaz de France - Direction de la recherche
3 UB - Université de Bourgogne

A study by 3D finite element analysis has revealed the changes in the stress field around broken fibres in cfrp by considering the evolution of representative elementary volumes of the composite for both elastic and viscoelastic matrices and the effects of debonding. The viscoelastic behaviour of the matrix does not change the mechanism of load transfer but introduces time as a parameter. At a constant load, the relaxation of the matrix increases the coefficients of load transfer around broken fibres and causes new failures of fibres. This analysis relates the acoustic emission detected during steady loading to fibre failures. In this way a model to predict the lifetime of pressure vessels has been developed.

Domaines: Science des matériaux [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]

Sébastien Blassiau, Anthony R. Bunsell, Alain Thionnet. Micromechanics, damage and life prediction of carbon fibre composite pressure vessels. ECCM 11, 11th European conference on composite materials, 2004, Rhodes, Greece. 10 p. ⟨hal-00165021⟩