Experimental behavior assessment of short, randomly-oriented glass-fiber composite pipes

The application of short, fiber-reinforced polymer composite pipes has been increasing rapidly. A comprehensive review of the prior research reveals that the majority of the previously-reported studies have been conducted on the filamentwound composite pipes, and fewer studies have been reported on the mechanical behavior of short, randomly-oriented fiber composite pipes. On this basis, the main objective of this research endeavor is to investigate the mechanical behavior and failure modes of short, randomly-oriented glass-fiber composite pipes under three-point bending tests. To this end, an experimental study is performed in order to explore the load-bearing capacity, failure mechanism, and deformation performance of such pipes. Fourteen properly-instrumented composite pipe specimens with different diameters, thicknesses, lengths, and nominal pressures have been tested and also simulated using the finite element approach for verification purposes. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of the diameter-to-thickness ratio, length-to-diameter ratio, and nominal pressure on the mechanical behavior and deformation performance of short, randomly-oriented glass-fiber composite pipes.