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Int. J. Engg. Res. & Sci. & Tech. 2016 Rajesh P Nair and Ramesh Kumar, 2016

ISSN 2319-5991 www.ijerst.com

Special Issue, Vol. 3, No. 1, April 2016
International Conference on “Structural Engineering &
Construction Management” SECM-2016
Organized by: Department of Civil Engineering Mar Athanasius
Research Paper College of Engineering, Kothamangalam, Ernakulam, Kerala
© 2016 IJERST. All Rights Reserved

A NEW CONCEPT IN THE DESIGN FOR FILAMENT

WOUND COMPOSITE PRESSURE VESSEL
Rajesh P Nair1* and Ramesh Kumar2

*Corresponding Author: Rajesh P Nair  rajeshpnair@gmail.com

Filament wound pressure vessel is having the advantage of high strength to weight ratio
compared to metallic pressure vessel. Here in the paper aramid epoxy pressure vessel is
analyzed using FEM and a modified design using carbon petals is analyzed. Near dome
ends, bending is reduced with modified design. The replacement of aramid fiber with carbon
fiber was found to be successful and the advantage of new design is highlighted in this
paper.

Keywords: Low-relaxation seven-wire tendon, Elastic modulus, Extreme temperature property

effects, Tensile strength, Ultimate load, Yield stress

INTRODUCTION reinforcements. Hoop layers in the cylinder region

are provided based on the design for the ultimate
Filament wound composite pressure vessels that
pressure capability. Dome reinforcements in its
are widely used in inertial upper stages of launch
hoop direction are known as doily generally
vehicles are designed based on netting theory
provided between each polar layers. One of the
(Denost, 1988; and Parnas and Ardic, 2001).
well-known intricacies in the design of the filament
According to this theory, fibre alone takes the load.
wound composite pressure vessel is the inward
Generally a filament wound pressure vessel has
movement of the dome end against the direction
a cylindrical portion at the middle with domes on
of pressure causing kink or bending in the dome
either side of it fitted with metallic end bosses
profile under internal pressure (Kumar, 1994).
(Figure 1). Geodesic winding of the pressure
vessel with unequal opening to accommodate the In the design of the pressure vessel, it is
end bosses introduces slip proportional to the assumed that when hoop stress in the cylinder
increase in the opening ratio. The filament winding region reaches a value equal to the tensile
technique provides basically the polar strength of the fibre (in laminate level), failure
1
Assistant Professor, Department of Ship Technology, CUSAT.
2
Professor, Government Engineering College, Trivandrum.

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Int. J. Engg. Res. & Sci. & Tech. 2016
Figure 1: Finite Element Model of Filament
Wound Composite Pressure Vessel
occurs. In variably such an assumption holds
good as polar layer stresses are begin. Simple
design formula can be used to predict the failure
stresses at reasonably good accuracy. This is
the general practice followed in industrial and
to some extent in aero-space applications. It
was reported in literature that insufficient hoop
stiffness of the domes can cause dome
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Rajesh P Nair and Ramesh Kumar, 2016
bending. 3As on today there is no analytical
solution available to know what extent dome
hoop reinforcement has to be provided, say in
terms of ratio of overall stiffness in the hoop to
meridian directions, E  /E S of the dome.
Experimental methods to validate mathematical
model ar e hig hly expensive and time
consuming and also composite pressure
vessels can be safely and reliably designed
using simple relationship based on the hoop
stress in the cylinder region. Due to these
reasons attempts were not reported beyond
1980’s to offer a design for dome regions
without kinks or excessive bending. As on today
the coupling between hoop st resses to
meridional stress of the dome is not fully
understood. In the present study a geometric
non linear analysis of the composite pressure
vessel is carried out based on the geodesic
and isotensoid condition to estimate the
theoretical winding angle and thickness in the
domes and cylinder region. Displacements and
strains predicted are compared with available
test data. The ratio of overall stiffness along
meridian and hoop directions of the dome is
changed and a design is arrived that eliminate
the dome kink.
GEOMETRY
Geometric parameters like polar winding angle
at the cylinder-dome junction, dome profile, polar
winding angle of the domes, theoretical polar
layer thickness for given radius R are obtained
as follows (Rosato and Grove, 1980; and Lee,
1982).
Polar Winding Angle in the Cylinder
Based on the functional requirement of the end
opening sizes (head and nozzle ends) and the
volume of the pressure vessel, the polar angle in
Int. J. Engg. Res. & Sci. & Tech. 2016 Rajesh P Nair and Ramesh Kumar, 2016

the cylinder starting from cylinder dome junction, A is the cross-section area of a single filament,
aj is obtained as: mm2, n is the number of bands coming to feed
tool, v is the volumetric fraction of filament and b
Tan aj = (RHE + RNE)/L ...(1)
is the band width of a single band in mm.
Determination of Dome Profile
It may be noted that hoop layer thickness is
For a given input data the curvature R² of the designed to meet the ultimate design pressure.
dome can be obtained as: Typically, winding angle and polar layer thickness
• Dome-cylinder junction radius (Rj), at the middle of the head end dome are 220 and
7.8 mm. Similar value at nozzle end dome are
• Radius at head end or nozzle end (R0= RHE or
260 and 5.3 mm respectively. The doily thickness
RNE) and
for the seven layers considered is 2.1 mm.
• Slope at dome cylinder junction (R’ = dR/dz).
FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS


  
2
 
2 R 2j  3R02 * 1  R 2  In the present study geometric non-linear analysis

R    


 
R 2j  R02 * R j 

...(2) of filament wound pressure vessel is carried out
using a four node bi-linear layered shell element
Solving equation using numerical solution one with three There are seven double polar layers,
can obtain the dome profile. seven doilies and twenty three hoop layers. More
details were given in Ref 3. Table 1 gives the
Winding Angle in the Dome Region elastic properties used in the analysis when
For any radius R above the inflection point is aramid material is used for both doily for laying
obtained as: and fibre for winding.

Sin  = Ro/R ...(3) Boundary Conditions

where, Ro is the end boss radius of either head
end or nozzle ends.
Theoretical Thickness of Polar Fibre
Since the filament will have equal cross section
area in all the sections of pressure vessel,
2RtRcosR = 2Rjtjcosj
but,
tj = A* n/v*b*cosj
tR = Rjtjcosj/RcosR
where, t j and t R are total thickness of helical
winding at cylinder dome junction and at section
for a given radius R.  R is helical or polar winding
angle at sections for a given radius R.
Cylindrical coordinate system, Z (along
longitudinal axis), R (radial), and q (along the
circumference) is used to employ boundary
conditions. At skirt region all degrees of freedom
are constrained (Figure 1). The radial
displacement at the domes opening end and
...(4) rotations about Z and R axes are constrained at
both head end and nozzle end sides to simulate
the presence of thick metallic enclosures for the
...(5) testing.
...(6) Loading
Geometric non-linear analysis is carried out in
ten steps of equal pressure load up to 6.85
MPa.Pressure load acting over opening areas are
applied as equivalent nodal forces.

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Int. J. Engg. Res. & Sci. & Tech. 2016 Rajesh P Nair and Ramesh Kumar, 2016

Table 1: Elastic Properties of Unidirectional Figure 2: Comparison of Head End Dilation

Laminate and the Doilies Between

Overall No Doily Aramid Doily Carbon Doily

2 2 2
Stiffness N/ mm N/mm N/mm
Eθ 22700 24800 44200
ES 3900 38400 42800
Eθ/ES 0.517 0.646 1.033

METHOD OF APPROACH
In the present study ratio of overall stiffness along
meridian and hoop directions of the dome for three
options are considered by choosing without doily,
with aramid doily and carbon doily. This is to study
the effect of overall orthotropic stiffness E/ES on
Table 3: Comparison of Dilation with Aramid
dome bending or kink. Typically as a design and Carbon Doilies Using FEM
variable, at the mid head end dome the three Pressure-6.87 Aramid doily Carbon Doily
values of E/ESare estimated and given inTable 2 mpa (mm) (mm)
using the conventional property transformation. Head end 7.5 16.1
The present study is more focused on the head
Mid cylinder 13 11.5
end dome behaviour to establish a new concept
Nozzle en d 25.4 24.2
in the design of filament wound pressure vessel.

Table 2: Different Ratios of E/Es for Head Table 4: Comparison of Strains from Analysis
End Mid Dome Results and the Test Data

Aramid-Epoxy Carbon-Epoxy Test FE Analysis

Aramid-Epoxy
(Doily) (Doily)
2 2 2
Location in the Aramid Aramid Carbon
EL = 73900 N/mm EL = 33000 N/mm EL = 1302 00 N/mm Pressure Vessel Doily Doily Doily
2 2 2
ET = 3410 N/mm ET = 3750 N/mm ET = 601 4 N/m m
Close to mid head 9336 T 9310 T
T
10811
end Dome
2 2 2

8592 B 8497 B
G LT = 1330 N/mm GL T = 1330 N/mm G LT = 26 07 N/mm

υ LT = 0.331 υ LT = 0 .2 5 υ LT = 0.314
Mid Cylinder 12532 11826 11826

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Close to mid nozzle End

Geometric non linear analysis with aramid doily
having E/ES = 0.646 (Table 2), for an initial design
is carried out and pressure vessel dilations and
fibre strains are compared with test data. The
comparison on the variation of head end dilation
with pressure between the test and analysis given
in Figure 2 indicates a reasonably good
11185 10040 9946
Dome
agreement between the test and analysis results.
Table 3 shows the dilations at head end dome,
mid cylinder and nozzle end dome. Table 4 gives
the comparison of strains in the outer surface
along the fibre direction of head end dome with
test results. There is a deviation of 13.6% between

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Int. J. Engg. Res. & Sci. & Tech. 2016 Rajesh P Nair and Ramesh Kumar, 2016

the two approaches. A similar value at mid cylinder
and nozzle end dome with analysis results are
5.6% and 10.6% respectively and thus validate
geometric non linear analysis carried out.
The analysis is repeated with only aramid-
epoxy doily properties for the domes replaced by
carbon-epoxy doily retaining the aramid-epoxy
properties for the polar and hoop layers (Table
1). Analysis results on the comparison of head
end dilation with aramid and carbon epoxy doilies
with pressure are shown in Figure 3. With carbon
doily, the head end dilation is increased to 16.1
mm when compared to 7.5 mm with the aramid-
epoxy doily (Table 3).
6%. Similar values when carbon doily is used are
8119 me and 7510 me with 3.7% bending. A
reduction in dome bending by about 47% {[(8606-
7442)-(8119-7510)]/(8606-7442)} under proof
pressure load is observed. The small end opening
or head end dilation for the two cases analyzed
are compared. The deformed configurations of
the pressure vessel with aramid (vide, Table 1,
EL = 33,000 N/mm2) and carbon (EL = 130, 200
N/mm2) doilies are shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4: Comparison of Deformed
Configuration of Pressure Vessel with (a)
Aramid Doily and, (b) Carbon Doily

Figure 3: Comparison Analysis Results

of Head End Analysis and Test for Aramid
Doily Dilation Witharamid Doily and Carbon
Doily

The top and bottom fibre strain at dome

bending plane is given in the Table 4. It may be
noted that the maximum fibre strain with the
aramid doily is obtained as 8606 me at the inner
fiber location and 7442 me at the outer layer along
the fibre direction. This shows a bending of about

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Int. J. Engg. Res. & Sci. & Tech. 2016
It is clearly seen that the dome bending
observed for the case of with aramid doily
disappears with carbon doily due to increased
E/ES from 0.646 to 1.03.
CONCLUSION
Geometric non-linear finite element analysis of
an initial design configuration for a filament wound
composite pressure vessel has been carried out
considering theoretical layer thicknesses and the
winding angle. A good agreement for the fibre
strains and pressure vessel dilations between the
prediction based on the analysis and test has
been established. A parametric study is then
carried out by varying the ratio of hoop to
meridional dome equivalent or overall stiffness
following different options. For the initial design,
with the dome hoop reinforcements using aramid
composite, the value of E/ES = 0.646. Now, for
the modified design replacing with carbon doily
for the dome E/ES becomes 1.03. For this case,
analysis results indicate a reduction of about 500
ìå at the maximum bending strain location that is
close to the middle of the dome. Such a reduction
in bending causes increased curvature and
hence marginal increase in the axial dilation.
Present study clearly shows that even though the
axial dilation are slightly more for the case when
carbon doily is used, the bending strain is reduced
by about as much as 47% (about) compared to
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Rajesh P Nair and Ramesh Kumar, 2016
the case when aramid doily is used. The
deformed contour is found to be smooth without
any kink for the improved design when E/ES
become one.
REFERENCES
1. Denost J P (1988), “Design of Filament
Wound Rocket Cases”, Design Methods in
Solid Rocket Motors, Badham, H, AGARD
Publishers, Pergamon Press, Oxford.
2. Kumar R R (1994), “Structural Integrity
Assessment of Aramid-Epoxy Rocket Motor
System”, Aerospace Composites-
Challenges and Opportunities, AeSI, Vol. 1,
pp. 245-260.
3. Lee T Y (1982), “Report on Structural
Analysis of Filament Wound Pressure
Vessels”, Progress in Science &
Engineering of Composites, T Suyoshi
Hayashi, Kozo Kaaawala and
Sokichimeekawa (Eds.), Vol. 1.
4. Parnas L and Ardic S (2001), Filament
Winding Handbook of Composites
Fabrication, pp. 103-125, Akovali, Guneri,
Shrewsbury/Rapra Technology Ltd.
5. Rosato D V and Grove C S Akin (1980),
Filament Winding, Its Development,
Manufacture, Application & Design,
pp. 216-228.