909-913
DOI: 10.1007/s12541-010-0110-4
Underwater vehicles that operate in deep waters require a pressure hull to maintain the sufficient strength and
stiffness against external hydrostatic pressure. We investigated the validity of the finite element method (FEM) that
is applied to a buckling analysis of the filament-wound composite cylinder, subjected to an external hydrostatic
pressure. Two methods were suggested for the buckling analysis of a filament-wound thick composite cylinder
under hydrostatic pressure: using the equivalent properties of the composite, and using stacking sequence. The
hydrostatic pressure test was conducted to verify the FEA. Test results were compared with the previous results
obtained by FEM on the buckling of a filament-wound composite cylinder under hydrostatic pressure. FEM
analysis results were in good agreement with the test results. The difference between FEM results and the test
results was approximately 1~5%.
Manuscript received: March 17, 2010 / Accepted: August 1, 2010
NOMENCLATURE
E1,E2,E2 = Elastic Modulus
G12,G23,G13 = Shear Modulus
v12 ,v23, v13 = Poissons ratio
1. Introduction
Underwater vehicles, that operate in deep water, are subjected
to high external hydrostatic pressure. In general, the pressure hull of
an underwater vehicle has a stiffened cylindrical shell structure, and
the spherical or elliptic shells are attached to both ends. Shell is the
structure often found in vessels, submarines, aircrafts, and buildings.
Accordingly, there have been many studies on the analysis of shell
structures, and the variety of shell theories has been suggested. In
particular, when the shell undergoes a pressure load, the buckling
KSPE and Springer 2010
can take place at a stress which is far lower than the material
strength. Therefore, the compressive buckling strength of a shell
should be taken into consideration.1,2
The performance of a structure can be improved if its weight is
be reduced by using the low-density material such as a composite,
compared to high strength steel, titanium alloy, and aluminum alloy.
Experiments on composite buckling are limited by equipments and
costs, and thus the finite element analysis (FEA) method is used to
simulate the testing.3 The FEA results for isotropic materials, such
as metals, are in good agreement with experimental results.
However, the FEA results for composite materials, that are
anisotropic, can show a relatively large difference with
experimental results. Accordingly, it is necessary to identify the
problems with the FEA results and bridge the gaps by optimizing
the finite element models.
The majority of studies on conventional composites focus on
composites made by prepreg method.4,5 There are many studies on
the bucking and postbucking of cylindrical shell, which are
Table 2 Various types of stacking cases based on the stacking angle and thickness
Case 1
Case 2
Case 3
Case 4
Case 5
Case 6
Case 7
Thickness of
[-30], [+30], mm
3.30, 3.30
1.65, 1.65
0.83, 0.83
0.41, 0.41
0.21, 0.21
No. of
Layers
1, 1
2, 2
4, 4
8, 8
16, 16
Thickness of
[30], mm
6.6
-
No. of
Layers
1
-
Thickness of
[90], mm
1.4
1.4
1.4
1.4
1.4
1.4
Thickness of
[30/90], mm
8.0
-
No. of
Layers
1
-
Direction
Values
Fiber
120.7
Matrix
8.5
In-plane
3.4
Transverse
2.7
In-plane
0.253
Transverse
0.421
2.1 Assumptions
Material properties of the composite may be determined by
experiment.9 However, the composite made from the filament
winding has a mesh structure with fiber and matrix, and it is
difficult to model all meshes to perform a finite element analysis.
Accordingly, the following assumptions were made before
performing the finite element buckling analysis. In order to define
material properties, the effective properties of stacking ply were
introduced. The effective properties of stacking ply, which were
obtained based on the classical laminate theory, were assumed as
the composite of a single ply. In addition, the following
assumptions were used for the analysis:10 macroscopically, each ply
is homogeneous, linear-elastic, and orthotropic. There was no initial
stress and each fiber was homogeneous, linear-elastic, as well as
well arranged in the space. The matrix is homogeneous, linearelastic, and isotropic. There were no vacancies, and the fiber and
matrix are fully combined.
No. of
Layers
1
1
1
1
1
1
Poissons ratio
[30/90]
[30]
Ez
49.9
37.9
Et
28.0
8.3
Er
9.9
9.3
Gzt
20.7
24.4
Gtr
2.9
2.85
Gzr
3.1
3.18
vzt
0.570
1.47
vtr
0.278
0.29
vzr
0.157
-0.22
Remarks
Shell181
Solsh190
shown in Table 3.
The cross stacking was made for [-30] and [+30] of Case 3 to
Case 7, and the stacking for [90] was made in the outside.
3. Experiments
3.1 Manufacture of the composite cylinder
The thick composite cylinder, which was designed to endure
high hydrostatic pressure in deep water, was manufactured by a
company that specializes in the composite pressure vessels. The
shell (radius=150 mm, length=695 mm, thickness=8 mm) was made
by the filament winding as shown in Fig. 2.
Carbon fiber T700 was used in the cylinder. The winding of
82.5% was made at an angle of 30, and the final winding of
17.5% was made at an angle of 90 in the direction that is
perpendicular to the length of the cylinder. Fig. 3 shows the test
Case 1
Case 2
Case 4
Test
Error (%)
Linear Non-linear
39.1
39.5
36.3
36.3
0.7
0.7
1.2
1.4
6.5
3.5
1.9
4.7
-
case1 (shell)
case1 (solid)
case2 (shell)
case2 (solid)
case4 (shell)
case4 (solid)
Experiment
0
0
10
20
30
40
50
Displacement (mm)
REFERENCES
1. Messager, T., Pyrz, M., Gineste, B. and Chauchot, P., Optimal
laminations of thin underwater composite cylindrical vessels,
Composite Structures, Vol. 58, No. 4, pp. 529-537, 2002.
2. Turvey, G. J. and Marshall, I. H., Buckling and postbuckling of
composite plates, Chapman & Hall, pp. 3-5, 1995.
3. Kundu, C. K. and Sinha, P. K., Post buckling analysis of
laminated composite shells, Composite Structures, Vol. 78, No.
3, pp. 316-324, 2007.
Fig. 8 Pressure-strain curves obtained by experiment
5. Conclusion
We developed the finite element technique to analyze the
buckling of a thick composite cylinder, manufactured by a filament
winding. The following conclusions were drawn based on the
comparison of the FEA and hydrostatic pressure experiment results.
(1) The FEA analysis results of using the two types of elements,
that is solid and shell, are quite similar.
(2) For the finite element modeling, which is to predict the
buckling pressure of filament-wound thick composite cylinder, the
effective property and separate stacking method were proposed.
When only the effective properties were used in the finite element
buckling analysis, the result showed an error of about 40% from the
actual hydrostatic experimental value. However, the method that
used both effective properties and separated stacking showed only
about 1-5% of an error from the experimental value.
(3) When predicting the buckling pressure of a filament-wound
thick composite cylinder, more precise results were obtained by
using the method, which applied stacking by separating the helical
winding layer and the hoop winding layer.
ACKNOWLEGEMENTS
This work was supported by the Underwater Vehicle Research
Center (UVRC) of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration
(DAPA).