Pressure Carrying Capacity of Reinforced Plastic Tubes

The effect of the reinforcement of plastic tubes by composite material layers on the internal pressure carrying capacity has been investigated throughout this project. Basic plastic tubes, composite tubes and reinforced plastic tubes, by filament fibers and woven roving glass composite material, with one and two layers under internal pressure have been tested experimentally. Internal pressure has been applied for the various composite tubes including the plastic reinforced tubes using a hydraulic cylinder mechanism to obtain the bursting pressure needed for each case. Composite tubes of 48 mm inner diameter and of one and two layers were fabricated and tested throughout this project. In addition plastic tubes of 48 mm outer diameter and 1 mm wall thickness were tested with and without external layers of composite material. For all the tubes, filament winding and woven roving glass types of fibers were used. All the tubes tested were of 300 mm length. It has been found that the bursting pressure increases ...