Flexural Analysis of Butt-Joint Prepared by CFRP Windings between two Aluminium Adhered Pipes using ANSYS

Abstract

A FRP butt- joint was developed between two adherents of aluminium pipes of outside diameter 25.5 mm inside diameter 22 mm and length 175 mm. The joint was formed by winding wetted roving of carbon fiber with controlled quantity of epoxy at 45° angle. It was cured to form the joint with CFRP working as a sleeve. The joint was simulated using ANSYS software, for two kinds of loading i) tensile loading and ii) flexural loading. Under a four point bend test with thin CFRP sleeve (n = 80), the failure occurred at the maximum load of 3470 N, due to breakage of CFRP at the joint plane. When the CFRP sleeve was made thicker (n = 150), the aluminium adhered failed due to formation of plastic hinges in the aluminium adherents outside the CFRP sleeve. CFRP butt-joints between aluminum pipes with 80 passes fail at 3470N due to CFRP breakage at joint plane. With 150 passes, aluminum adherent fails at 5200N due to plastic hinge formation outside sleeve. The numerical analysis for Flexural was done for two kinds of specimen under flexural loading conditions, (i) thin sleeve with 80 passes, and (ii) thick sleeve with 150 passes. The first kind of specimen with 80 numbers of passes failed due to breakage of FRP at the joint plane with maximum load of about 370N. The second kind of specimen made with 150 numbers of passes, was too strong to fail at the joint plane.