There has been significant interest in the combined pressure/axial load testing of GFRP tubular members without a joint not only as a means of determining the pipe behaviour but also as a method of testing the biaxial properties of composites e.g. [1]. In such tests, the stress ratios of hoop to axial loads are usually fixed, and the specimens are tested to failure.
The focus of the current work is to consider the behaviour of joined tubular members under combined loadings and to explore cases where axial loads were applied independently from pressure. The case where longitudinal stresses were superimposed on stresses generated due to pressurisation is of most interest. Thus in contrast to much of the previous work on tubular pipes without joints, the pressure load was fixed and only the axial load varied, hence the ratio of the hoop stress to axial stress changed during testing.
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Cross section through GFRP joined section showing internal pressurisation fittings |
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