Impact responses, compressive and burst tests of glass/epoxy (GRE) composite pipes

Abstract

The paper presents the impact responses, compression and burst tests of glass reinforced epoxy (GRE) composites pipes. Impact loadings of three different energy levels (5 J, 7.5 J, and 10 J) were applied, followed by monotonic burst tests. Uniaxial compressive tests were conducted GRE samples using a universal testing machine in accordance with ASTM D695-10. In addition, the tests were also repeated with samples of different winding angles of ±45 ° and ±55 ° and tested at room temperature, and elevated temperatures of 45 °C and 65 °C. The result shows that the higher the impact energy applied to the pipes, the lower the burst strength of the pipes. The maximum burst strength found decreased with an increase in the impact energy level. The results also indicate that the strength of the GRE pipes significantly decreases with increase in temperature though, they are also found to increase as the winding angles decrease.