Damage, deformation and residual burst strength of filament-wound composite tubes subjected to impact or quasi-static indentation

Thin-walled filament-wound E-glass fibre-reinforced epoxy tubes were subjec ted to lateral indentation in quasi-static and low speed impact tests and w ere then tested under internal pressure to determine their residual burst s trength. The behaviour of tubes subjected to quasistatic and low velocity i mpact loading tests was found to be the same. Experimental strain measureme nts in quasi-static indentation tests showed a large degree of redistributi on of strain with increasing deflection which resulted in local buckling fa ilure away from the indentation point. Damage in the form of matrix crackin g resulted from low energy indentation but did not reduce the residual burs t strength of the tube. Higher energy indentation, which produced buckling failure, reduced the tubes' burst strength by 60%. Crown Copyright (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.