Paper number 631

EXTERNAL PRESSURE TESTING OF A LARGE-SCALE COMPOSITE PIPE

Guillermo Ramirez1 and Michael D. Engelhardt2

1Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Kansas
2006 Learned Hall, Lawrence, Kansas, 66045-2234, USA
2Department of Civil Engineering, Offshore Technology Research Center
The University of Texas at Austin, Ferguson Structural Engineering Laboratory,
10100 Burnet Road, Austin, Texas, 78758, USA

Summary An external pressure test was conducted on a full-scale diameter prototype composite offshore drilling riser. The test specimen was a carbon fiber - epoxy filament wound tube, approximately 55.9 cm (22 in) outside diameter and 3.05 cm (1.2 in) wall thickness. The tube was subjected to external water pressure up to collapse. The purpose of the test was to confirm the external pressure capacity of the tube, and to provide a basis for verification and calibration of analytical estimates of the collapse pressure for composites. The specimen was instrumented with strain gages on both the outside and inside walls of the tube, and was monitored with a digital acoustic emission system. This paper will describe the test specimen, and will summarize key results of the test.
Keywords buckling, carbon fiber, composite structures, offshore applications, acoustic emission, nondestructive evaluation.

Theme : Composite Structures ; Pipes

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