FILAMENT-WINDING PATTERNS AND STRESS ANALYSIS OF THIN-

WALLED COMPOSITE CYLINDERS

E.V. Morozov, M.Hoarau and K.E.Morozov

School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Natal, Durban 4041, South Africa

e-mail: morozov@nu.ac.za

Modelling and stress analysis of filament-wound composite shells of revolution is normally based on the
implementation of mechanics of composite laminates [1]. At the same time there are some manufacturing effects
specific for the filament winding processes that are usually ignored in the conventional laminate analysis. As a
matter of fact, the actual material structure of the filament-wound composite shell is different from the laminated
structure of composite flat samples and plates. Composite shell fabricated by filament winding consists of angle-ply
orthotropic layers. Each layer is a combination of an even number of alternating plies with angles + φ and − φ to
the shell meridian [1]. These plies are interlaced in the filament winding process and the resulting angle-ply layer
has a specific filament-winding pattern consisting of triangular-shaped repeating units around circumference and
along the axis of rotation (e.g. see Fig. 1). Each unit consists of two plies with either [ + φ / − φ ] or [ − φ / + φ ]
structure. The [ + φ / − φ ] units and the [ − φ / + φ ] units are alternating in the hoop and meridian directions,
creating the specific filament-winding patterns. As a result, the composite angle-ply layer has a mosaic kind of a
structure with alternating triangular units (see Fig. 1). The mechanical behaviour of each unit is determined by the
different constitutive equations taking into account the corresponding coupling effects. The relative size of the unit
and correspondingly the texture of the angle-ply layer could be controlled by the process parameters of the filament
winding for the one and the same angle of filament orientation φ [2]. In general, the lesser the relative size of the
unit the closer the layer structure to the fabric.

(a)

(b)

Fig. 1 Original and deformed models: (a) two-unit cylinder, (b) four-unit cylinder.

The sensitivity of composite cylinders in compression to the filament-winding patterns was considered in [3]. As
was shown, the buckling mode shapes and the critical loads were strongly influenced by the elastic couplings and
the scale of the repeating units around the circumference of the cylinder.
In the present paper the results of the stress analysis of the composite cylindrical shells with different filament-
winding patterns are presented. The cylinders under consideration were reinforced by an angle-ply layer with a
winding angle of φ = ±60 and loaded with internal pressure of 1 MPa. Diameter of the cylinder was 60 mm and
ο

total thickness of the wall was equal to 1.4 mm. Mechanical properties of the unidirectional glass-epoxy composite
were as follows [1]: E1 = 60 GPa , E 2 = 13 GPa , ν 21 = 0.3 , G12 = 3.4 GPa . The ends of the shell were
clamped and the distance between the ends was fixed (length of the cylinder was 140 mm). Stress analysis has been
performed for the four different types of the filament-winding patterns. The first type of cylinder was modelled as a
conventional laminated structure. The other three cylinders had two, four, and eight triangular units around the
circumference respectively. The cylinders with two and four units are shown in Fig. 1 in the original and deformed
states. Stress analysis of the conventional laminated cylinder has been conducted using both an analytical approach
presented in [1] and finite element analysis. Stresses along and across fibres, σ 1 and σ 2 and shear stresses, τ 12
acting in the plies were calculated. The results are presented in Table 1.

Table 1. Results of the stress analysis for the conventional and 2-, 4-, and 8-unit cylinders

Filament-winding σ 1 , MPa σ 2 , MPa τ 21 , MPa

patterns
Conventional laminated cylinder, 25.57 3.43 1.6
analytical solution
Conventional laminated cylinder, 24.9 3.79 1.98
FEA
2-unit filament-wound cylinder 10.0 – 40.99 13.9 – 17.7 1.66 – 4.82
4-unit filament-wound cylinder 11.6 – 33.2 12.7 – 20.3 2.47 – 5.33
8-unit filament-wound cylinder 14.84 – 27.30 13.6 – 18.2 3.17 – 4.94

The models for the shells with various winding patterns (2-, 4-, and 8- repeating units cylinders) were developed
using solid modelling and analysed using MSC NASTRAN. Typical stress distributions and deformed shells are
shown in Fig. 1.
As can be seen the analytical solution and conventional FEA provide close values of the stresses in the plies (e.g.
σ 1 = 25.57 MPa (analytical) and σ 1 = 24.9 MPa (FEA)). Distributions of stresses for 2-, 4-, and 8-unit
filament-wound cylinders are substantially different. Stress distributions for these cylinders are not uniform along
the cylinder length and around the circumference. The corresponding ranges of the stresses are shown in Table 1.
The level of maximum stresses for the 2-unit shell is significantly higher compared to the conventional analysis and
reaches the level of 40.99 MPa. With the increase of number of triangular units per unit of length in both the
longitudinal and circumferential directions, and corresponding reduction in the relative size of each unit (4-unit shell
and 8-unit shell) the stresses acting along the fibres are decreased (e.g., σ 1 = 27.3 MPa for 8-unit shell) closing to
the level of stress determined by conventional analyses. The distributions of the stresses in the longitudinal and
circumferential directions are also closing to the more uniform ones. Thus, there is a distinctive influence of the
filament-winding patterns on the stressed state of the composite shells, which is normally not taken into account by
the existing analytical tools and software packages. The results presented in the paper demonstrate the significance
of this kind of manufacturing effects on the strength of thin-walled filament-wound composite shells.

REFERENCES

1. V.V.Vasiliev and E.V. Morozov. Mechanics and Analysis of Composite Materials. Elsevier Science, 2001.
2. V.V. Vorobey, E.V. Morozov and O.V. Tatarnikov. Analysis of Thermostressed Composite Structures.
Moscow, Mashinostroenie, 1992 (in Russian).
3. D.W.Jensen and S.P.Pai. Theoretical sensitivity of composite cylinders in compression to filament-winding
pattern. Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Composite Materials (ICCM-9), Madrid, 1993, Vol.
3, pp. 447-454.