Investigating the influence of delamination on the stiffness of composite pipes under compressive transverse loading using cohesive zone method

The effect of delamination on the stiffness reduction of composite pipes is studied in this research. The stiffness test of filament wound composite pipes is simulated using cohesive zone method. The modeling is accomplished to study the effect of the geometrical parameters including delamination size and its position with respect to loading direction on stiffness of the composite pipes. At first, finite element results for stiffness test of a perfect pipe without delamination are validated with the experimental results according to ASTM D2412. It is seen that the finite element results agree well with experimental results. Then the finite element model is developed for composite pips with delaminated areas with different primary shapes. Thus, the effect of the size of delaminated region on longitudinal and tangential directions and also its orientation with respect to loading direction on delamination propagation and stiffness reduction of the pipes is assessed.