Composite Structures 22 ( 1992) 179-186

An estimation of strength for composite pressure

vessels
C. S. Mao, M. F. Yang
Department of System Engineering, Chung Cheng Institute of Technology, Ta-Itsi, Taoyuan, 335 Taiwan

D. G. Hwang a & H. C. Wang b

"MR/DC, h2nd Division, Chung Shan Institute of Science and Technology, Lung-Tan, Taoyuan, 325 Taiwan

A method for estimating the fracture strength of a composite pressure vessel is

proposed. The analysis is based upon the statistical approach and extrapolation
method by regressing the experimental results of preimpregnated yarn, coupon
and Naval Ordnance Laboratory (NOL) ring specimens. It is found that the use
of the proposed method to predict the in-composite fiber strength for the large
composite structures seems quite feasible.

NOTATION Ocfpv In-composite fiber strength of composite

pressure vessel
A Cross-sectional area of coupon specimen tri In-composite fiber strength from test
b Width of specimen
d Nominal diameter of fiber
D Inner diameter of pressure vessel 1 INTRODUCTION
GL Gage length of specimen
n Number of specimens with the correct In real application, it would be convenient and
failure mode cost-saving to employ fiber strength, which could
N Number of fibers contained in each yarn be either obtained by testing single filament or
Pb Hydroburst failure pressure of pressure preimpregnated yarn specimens, or supplied by
vessel vendors, and apply to structural strength analysis.
t Thickness of specimen However, the problem we may meet is that it is
th Thickness of hoop winding inadequate to extend the strength of single fibers
to Thickness of helical winding to the unidirectional fiber components or struc-
Vf Fiber volume content tures by applying fracture mechanics because of
V Material volume of composite structure the existence of size effect and property scattering.
V0 Small material volume treated as a corn- There are some experimental data to support the
parison basis existence of size effect and to predict such a phen-
omenon by analytical models for composite ten-
a Shape parameter of Weibull distribution sile strength. However, the size effect has not been
fl Characteristic strength demonstrated definfively in composite struc-
0 Helical winding angle tures. 1
acf Fiber strength in composite It has been found that the Weibull distribution
trcicp In-composite fiber strength of coupon is a reasonable function to represent the strength
specimen distribution for single fibers, bundles and compo-
O'cfNOL In-composite fiber strength of NOL ring site materials individually.2,3 However, there is no
specimen comprehensive statistical methodology available
O'cfpy In-composite fiber strength of pre- at this moment for treating the strength and failure
impregnated yarn specimen of composite structures. Due to this restriction,
179
Composite Structures 0263-8223/92/S05.00 © 1992 ElsevierSciencePublishersLtd, England.Printed in Great Britain
180 C. S. Map, M. F. Yang, D. G. Hwang, H. C. Wang
the estimation of structural fracture strength for a
composite pressure vessel is usually based upon
the results of coupon tensile test and the failure
analysis accompanied with an experienced safety
factor,
In this study, an effective method for estimating
the fracture strength of a composite pressure
vessel is proposed. The analysis is based upon the
statistical approach and extrapolation method by
regressing the experimental results of preimpreg-
nated yarn, coupon and NOL ring specimens. The
two-parameter Weibull distribution is employed
to conduct the statistical approach in which the
size effect on average fiber strength is taken into
consideration. Regression analysis is used to fit
the data which have been treated by the Weibull
method, and the prediction results are extrapola-
ted by substituting the representative volume into
the regression polynomials. Finally, four compo-
site pressure vessels are manufactured by the fila-
ment winding method. The hydrostatic burst test
is conducted on these pressure vessels. The accur-
acy of the proposed method is thus checked by
comparing the burst test data of the pressure ves-
sels with the predicted results,
The proposed approach and results of this
study are valuable for the designer of composite
pressure vessels. In particular, in the preliminary
design phase, no coupon tests are needed for
applying thismethod,
2 ANALYSIS APPROACH AND P R O C E D U R E
2.1 Experimental approach
A large number of specimens, including preim-
pregnated yams, coupons and NOL rings with
different dimensions, are tested under tensile load
to obtain the in-composite fiber failure strength
for the selected S2-glass and ST-II carbon fiber
reinforced composites. In order to avoid the influ-
ence of other factors rather than size, the material
composition, manufacturing process and environ-
mental conditions are kept as similar as possible
to those used for the manufacture of pressure
vessel,
2.2 Weibull statistical analysis
The Weibull distribution given by eqn (1) is pre-
sented as a physically consistent description of
strength distribution in composites. In addition, it
is employed to predict the size effect for the in-
composite fiber strength which is decreased with
the increasing composite volume: ~
F(a) = 1 - exp[-(0//3)"] (1)
where F(o)is the probability of failure at stress of
o; a is the shape parameter and/3 is the charac-
teristic strength. Usually, the parameters a and/3
are treated as constants regardless of the compo-
site structure volume. However, the values of a
and fl indeed depend upon the size of composite
structure because of the manufacturing process
and material intrinsics.
In this study, we write a and/3 as a function of
material volume in the following form:
a =f~(V/V,) and/3=J2 (V/Vo) (2)
in which V is the material volume of composite
structure and V0 is a small material volume of a
composite structure and is treated as a compari-
son basis. From eqns (1) and (2), F(o) is a func-
tional of the function of V.
In this research, a basic assumption is that the
strength distribution for the composite materials
and structures with different size can be consist-
ently described by Weibull distribution.
After examining the failure mode of each tested
specimen, the test data with correct failure mode
are treated by using maximum likelihood estima-
tion 4 to find the values of parameters a and fl for
each group of specimens, i.e. calculating the
values of a and fl by the following two equations:
I1 ¢1
~V oi In ai ~ In a i
~=:1 l,:l
- 0 (3)
~z a II
/~ 0 i
i=1
1 o~~ (4)
/3= \~-i = 1
in which o~ is the in-composite fiber strength from
the test results
When composite structures are designed with
different sizes the same risk of failure is usually
required. Under this assumption we can use the
following equation for the two different size struc-
tures which are made from the same composite
material:
)., ),,2
(acf,//31 =(acJ/32 (5)
Here ac/i and a ~ is the fiber strength for the
composite structure with the volume of Vt and V 2,
 An estimation of strength for composite pressure vessels
respectively. The fiber strength in composite, trcl,
can be expressed as acf= try~Vf, where o~ is the
composite structure strength and vf is the corre-
sponding fiber volume content. We can rewrite
eqn (5) into the following form:
~ ~a,/a,
at!2 = f12 ~ocy,lvlj (6)
This equation proposes a method for estimating
the in-composite fiber strength from a and ft.
2.3 Strength prediction
Although the values of a and fl are a function of
structure size, there is no comprehensive expres-
sion which can be derived to show the analytic
relationships between a, fl and structure volume.
However, in real applications we can fit the calcu-
lated values of a and fl, respectively, with a poly-
nomial of a smooth curve by applying the
least-squares method. 5
After the values of a and fl have been deter-
mined by the least squares method, the corre-
sponding strength for large structures is easily
predicted by eqn (6).
3 SPECIMEN PREPARATION AND
TESTING PROCESS
3.1 Specimen preparation
There are three kinds of specimen needed: pre-
impregnated yarn, coupon and NOL ring speci-
mens. All specimens are produced in accordance
with regulation of ASTM test provisions of
D 4018, D 3039 and D 2290.
Two kinds of fiber are used, including S2-glass
fiber of Owens-Corning, Pennsylvania, USA and
ST-II carbons fiber of Toho, Chuo ku, Tokyo,
Japan. The matrix is epoxy resin (Main agent
CIBA 507, 100 units; hardening agent CIBA 906,
80 units; activator DR 061, 2 units, 120°C hard-
ening type),
The details for the preparation of correspond-
ing specimens can be found in Refs 6 and 7.
In order to check the analytical result, four
pressure vessels were fabricated to execute the
hydrostatic burst test.
It is known that the quality and performance
for the fiber reinforced plastic (FRP) pressure
vessels are affected by the fabrication procedures
and technologies. Of particular significance are
181
the mandrel, liner, end-closure contour, casing
winding and curing process.
For the present case fabrication, a wet filament
wound technology with a target of about 0.60
fiber volume content was utilized. Resin content
was controlled by employing an impregnating
drum. The McClean-Anderson numerical con-
trolled winding machine with a maximum capacity
of 6 m in length and 1-5 m in diameter was used to
execute the case winding. The mandrel adopted in
this study was sand-PVA mandrel, and the liner
was stacked by laying up NBR and V-44 rubber
on the sand mandrel. The dome contour was
designed in a balanced Geodesic-Isotensoid (GI)
contour. The design and fabrication details can be
found in Ref. 8, and the parameters for the pres-
sure vessels are listed in Table 4.
3.2 Test process
All the tensile tests including preimpregnated
yarn, coupon and NOL specimens were con-
ducted using an Instron universal material testing
unit. Since the test results were processed by a
statistical method, the specimen number for each
category of specimen is at least 15. All fixtures
and jigs were used in accordance with the require-
ments of ASTM standards, D2343 and D4018
for preimpregnated yarn, D 3039 for coupon and
D 2290 for NOL ring specimens.
The burst strength of the vessels was obtained
by applying the hydrostatic burst test. This was
required in order to compare with the analytical
prediction. The details of test process for this
study can be found in Refs 8 and 9.
4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4.1 a and fl from experiment data
The acceptable test strength data should be
compared with the correct failure mode. The
failure mode was carefully checked, after con-
ducting a related test, to decide whether the test
result was acceptable or not.
For individual groups of specimens, the calcu-
lated results are shown as follows.
4.1.1 Preimpregnatedyarn
The data shown in Table 1 are the calculated
values of a and fl for preimpregnated yarn speci-
mens by means of maximum likelihood estima-
tion. The in-composite fiber strength, aCfpy, for
182 C. S. Mao, M. F. Yang, D. G. Hwang, H. C. Wang

t h e s e specimens is calculated by the following Here, A is the cross-sectional area of the c o u p o n

equation:
acfpy=brokenload/[N(ztdZ/4)] (7)
in which d is the nominal diameter of the fiber,
T h e nominal diameter used h e r e is 11 and 7 / ~ m
for S2-glass and ST-II c a r b o n fiber, respectively,
N is the n u m b e r of fibers contained in each yarn,
and is 4500 and 6 0 0 0 for S2-glass and ST-II
carbon fiber, respectively.
4.1.2 Coupon
For coupon specimens, the in-composite fiber
strength, O~fcp,is calculated as follows:
Ocfcp ~- broken load/(A vf)
Table 1. Values of a and fl for preimpregnated yarn
specimens
specimen, and vf is the fiber volume fraction. In
this study, Ve is about 60% for all specimens.
Since the Young's modulus of fiber is m u c h
greater than that of matrix, the strength calcula-
tion in the equation assumed that all load is
carried by fibers.
T h e c o r r e s p o n d i n g values of a and fl com-
p u t e d b y e q n ( 8 ) a r e l i s t e d i n T a b l e 2.
4.1.3 NOL ring
The in-composite fiber strength for the NOL ring
specimen, trcmOL, is calculated by:
OcfNOL broken load/(2 b/vf)
= (9)
(8) in which b is the ring width, t is the ring thickness,
and vf is the fiber volume fraction. The data in
Table 3 show the corresponding values for the
i n d i v i d u a l a and ft.

Material S2-glass/epoxy ST-II carbon/epoxy 4.1.4 G R P pressure vessel

The hydrostatic burst test results for four pressure
na° 15
13.2 15
11"5 vessels are shown in Table 4. Of particular
fl(MPa) 3368 3737 importance is that the correct failure mode of
v hoop failure is the authors' preference. Figure 1
(ram3)h 109.4 58"9 shows the hoop failure phenomena after hydro-
"n, Number of specimens with correct failure mode. static burst test. The in-composite fiber strength is
hV--GL'N(:td2/4); GL=254mm. calculated by the netting analysis. The winding

Table 2. Values of a and fl for coupon specimens

Thickness, t (ram) Parameters S2-glass/epoxy ST-II carbon/epoxy

0"5 n" 15 15
a 14.8 13"8
fl (MPa) 3235 3340
V(mm3)~ 580 580
log V~Vo' 0"72 0"99
1"0 n 13 14
a 15'2 13"6
fl (MPa) 3199 3319
V(mm3) 1161 1161
log V/Vo 1.03 1.29
1.5 n 12 15
a 15.6 14.2
fl (MPa) 3116 3307
V(mm3) 1742 1742
log V/V0 1.2 1.47
2.0 n 15 14
a 15"5 13"9
fl (MPa) 3090 3295
V(mm3) 2323 2323
log V/Vo 1"32 1"6
"As in Table 1.
hV= vt(GLbt); GL, gage length, 152-4 ram; b, width of specimen, 25"4 ram; t, thickness
of specimen (mm).
"V0, Fiber volume of preimpregnated yarn with 254 mm gage length, its value is 110 and
58.9 mm3for S2-glass and ST-II carbon specimens, respectively.
 An estimation of strength for composite pressure vessels 183

Table 3. Values of a and ~ for NOL ring specimens

Diameter, D
(ram) Parameters S2-glass/epoxy ST-II carbon/epoxy

70 n" 15 14
a 15.8 14"9
fl (MPa) 2957 3264
V (nlln 3) b 3351 3351
log V~ Vo' 1"5 1"63
131 n 17 15
a 15-9 15.1
fl (MPa) 2980 3276
V(mm 3) 6272 6272
log V / V o 1"76 1"89
177 n 16 15
a 16-2 15
fl (MPa) 3021 3284
V(mm 3) 8474 8474
log V / V o 2.03 2.16

wAs in Table 1.
h V= vf(~rDtb); D, diameter of ring; t, thickness of ring, 1.0 ram; b, width of ring, 25-4
mm.
' V0 has the same value as in Table 2.

Table 4. Hydrostatic burst test results

Vessel identification No. 1 No. 2 No. 3 No. 4

Reinforcement S2-glass S2-glass carbon carbon

winding pattern 0-4L 0-2L 0-14L 0-10L
h-8L h-3L h-14L h-10L
0-2L
h-4L
Fiber volume content, vf 0.57 0.57 0-60 0.60
Winding angle 15" 15* 36.75* 37*
Helical winding thickness,
to (mm/layer) 0.183 0.244 0.3 0.3
Hoop winding thickness,
th (mm/layer) 0-132 0.175 0.2 0.2
Vessel thickness, t (mm) 1.788 1.851 7 5
Inner diameter (mm) 147 147 586 400
Burst pressure 22.75 29.30 24.37 19.24
Pb (MPa (psi)) (3300) (4250) (3535) (2790)
ach,v(MPa) 2657 2787 2795 2283

0, Helical winding; h, hoop winding; L, layer.

parameter for each vessel is also shown in Table 4.

With these data, the in-composite fiber strength W .....
for pressure vessels, acfp~, can be calculated by the ~ ....
following equation:
Gcfpv = PbD/[2 Vf(t o sin 2 0 + th) ] (10) i~

the
Here, Pb is the hydroburst failure pressure, D is
inner diameter, vf is the fiber volume fraction,
t o is the thickness of helical winding, th is the
thickness of hoop winding and 0 is the helical
winding angle,
The corresponding values of ac~,, calculated by
j ....

eqn (10) are also shown in Table 4. These values

should be compared with the data analytically Fig. 1. Hoop failure of ST-II earbon]elx~xy pressure vessel
predicted by eqn (6). after hydrostatic burst test.
184 C. S. Mao, M. F. Yang, D. G. Hwang, H. C. Wang

4.2 Size effect o n the values o f a and fl 4 . 3 Strength prediction

Regression analysis is applied to fitting the values
of a and fl from the experiment data. The extra-
polation step with the application of the least-
squares method is conducted to obtain the values
of a and fl for the larger composite structures.
The corresponding polynomials of a and fl for
the composite structures with different fiber rein-
forcement are listed in Table 5.
Using the equations in Table 5, we can illustrate
the relationships between a, fl and structure size
(log V/V0) in Figs 2 and 3, respectively. It seems
that the value of a increases slightly when the
volume increases up to coupon size. After the
volume reaches a certain value, the value of a
declines slowly, while the value of fl reduces
monotonically with the increase in volume,
From practical observation and experience, the
authors believe that the value of a would not
increase when the volume of the structure reaches
a certain value, and the value of fl would not
decrease significantly when the volume of the
structure is 'large' enough. The authors are confi-
dent that the values of a and fl calculated from
the equations listed in Table 5 could be applied to
a large pressure vessel 3 m in diameter and 25
Taking the equations of a and fl in Table 5, the
corresponding strength for the size of interest of
the composite pressure vessel can be calculated
using eqn (6).
Obviously, the mean strength test data show
quite a significant difference between large and
small volumes of composite structures. It is seen
that the use of coupons or preimpregnated yarn to
generate design data for large structures requires
modification. From the test result, the authors
found that the real in-composite fiber strength
may reach only about 80% of the fiber strength in
preimpregnated yarn for large composite struc-
tures.
The decrease in in-composite fiber strength for
the present carbon/epoxy structures is smaller
than that for the S2-glass/epoxy structures. Note
that the diameter of carbon fiber is smaller than
that of glass fiber. The filament diameter seems to
affect the strength and is worthy of further study.
In Fig. 4, the hydroburst test results for four
pressure vessels are also depicted in order to
1.0,~... • '.....~.

mm thick (the solid symbols in Figs 2 and 3 repre- ~'~'n,

sent these pressure vessels), o.~ ~ . . o~ -.~:<...<.,~ .......

0.8 ~"'~. ......................

0 ""~'- ...... t l
Table 5. Size effect on Weibull parameters ~- ~'~
~. A : $2-glass/Epoxy "~
o.7
Material Weibull parameters o: ST-II-carbon/Epoxy
S2-glass/epoxy a(x) = 13"2+ 2"91x - 0-95x: + O'07x3 o.a
fl(x) = 3371 - 214x+ 0"28x:
Carbon/epoxy a(x) = 11-55 + 2"09x- 0"21x2 0.s . . . .
fl(x) = 3738 - 265x+ 20'63x -~ o 1 2 a 4 s
t~g(V/Vo)
x = log (v~ v~). Fig. 3. Estimated values of flby regressionpolynomials.

~0 1.0

16 ~ - ~ " - " - ~ n-~'----

~ ~=::~ - ....
~.~"~ ~..ff oo" ~..~,

10
o : ST-If-carbon/Epoxy
A : S211ass/Epoxy -~
o: ST-II--carbon/Epoxy ~, 0.4 o : S2-glass/Epoxy

5
• e: Burst test data

¢] o.a A : Data f r o = F,q. (11)

b
0 ' ' ' ' 0.0 ' ' ' '
0 1 2 8 4 5 1 2 8 4
t~g(V/Vo) t~g(v/vo)
Fig. 2. Estimated values of a by regression polynomials. Fig. 4. Comparisonsof strength.
 A n estimation of strength for composite pressure vessels
Table 6. Comparison between predicted results and hydroburst test data
Vessel identification No. 1
log V/V~ 2.02
au 15.77
flu(MPa) 2939
acti,vh 2939
ocj~,f 2657
Dlfference't - 9.6%
"Calculated from Table 5.
hCalculatedfrom eqn (6).
'Calculated from eqn (10).
dDifference = {[,- h]ff}.100%.
eFailure mode includes hoop failure in cylindrical part and dome shoulder failure for no.
4 pressure vessel.
compare t h e m with the analytical predictions. It is
shown in Table 6 that the differences between
predictions and tests are within 10%, with the
exception of no. 4 pressure vessel which failed at
in both the cylindrical part and in the d o m e
shoulder and had a lower burst strength. From
these comparisons, the present analytical predic-
tion seems to be a good approach to handle the
strength estimation for composite structures.
To c o m p a r e the present analytical prediction
with the other prediction, the following equation
is introduced:
0"2/0" 1 = (I/'1/V2) l/a (11)
This is a well k n o w n strength size effect equa-
tion. 1° T h e equation is derived from the assump-
tions that the a and fl values are the same for the
two specimens under h o m o g e n e o u s stress, and
that the risk of fracture is the same.
Equation (11) is depicted in Fig. 4 in order to
compare it with the pressure vessel test results
a n d the prediction which is p r o p o s e d by this
study. T h e value of a used in eqn (11 ) is taken to
be 15 for the studied composite structures. Based
on the comparison in Fig. 4, it is found that eqn
(11) may be taken as a lower b o u n d of prediction,
From the above discussion we can draw the
conclusion that it is quite feasible to use the pre-
sented m e t h o d to predict the in-composite fiber
strength for larger composite structures.
5 CONCLUSIONS
This study has presented a feasible method for
estimating the fracture strength of a F R P c o m p o -
site pressure vessel. T h e analysis is based u p o n
the statistical approach and extrapolation method
185
No. 2 No. 3 No. 4
2.07 3.5 3.2
15.76 16'29 16.09
2928 3061 3099
2929 3062 3100
2787 2795 2283 e
- 4.8% - 8.7% - 26.4%
by regressing the experimental results of pre-
impregnated yam, coupon and NOL ring specimens.
T h e accuracy of the p r o p o s e d m e t h o d has been
checked by comparing the burst test data of the
pressure vessels with the predicted results. How-
ever, further test data are n e e d e d to improve the
accuracy of this method.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
T h e authors wish to thank the C o m p o s i t e Section
of Materials Research and Development Center
in Chung Shan Institute of Science and Technol-
ogy for assistance in materials supply, specimens
manufacturing and experiment tests.
REFERENCES
1. Crowther, M. F. & Starkly, M. S., Use of Weibull statis-
tics to quantify specimen size effects in fatigue of GRP.
Composite Sci. & Tech., 31 (1988) 87.
2. Coleman, B. D., On the strength of classical fibre and
fibre bundles. J. Mech. Phys. Solids, 7 (1958) 60.
3. Wetherhold, R. C., Statistical distribution of strength and
fiber reinforced composite materials. Polymer Compo-
sites, 7, 2 (1986) 116.
4. Mann, N. R., Schafer, IL E. & Singpurwalla, N. D.,
Methods for Statistic Analysis of Reliability and Life
Data. John Wiley, NewYork, 1974.
5. Cheney, W. & Kincaid, D., Numerical Mathematics and
Computing, Ch. 10. John Wiley, New York, 1985, p.
362.
6. Mao, C. S., Hwang, D. G., Yang, M. F., Hwong, H. &
Wong, H. C., On the fracture strength of fibers in the
composite structures. J. Soc. Naval Architecture and
Marine Engrs, R.O.C., 9 (2)(1990) 53.
7. Mao, C. S., Hwang, D. G., Yang, M. F., Hwang, H. &
Wong, H. C., On the tensile testing of composite NOL
ring by split disk method. J. Chung-Cheng Inst. Tech-
nology, 19(2)(1991)19.
8. Ger, G. S., Hwang, D. G., Yang, M. E, Hwang, H. &
186 C. S. Mao, M. F. Yang, D. G. Hwang, H. C. Wang

Wong, H. C., Design and fabrication of high perform- tension testing of filament-wound pressure vessels.
ance composite pressure vessels. Theoretical and ASTM Standard D2585-68, Philadelphia, PA, 1985.
Applied FractureMechanics, 10(1988)157. 10. Composites Design Guide, Vol. 4. University of Dela-
9. ASTM, Standard test method for preparation and ware, Vol. 4, 6:15, 1984.