Optimum Design of Thick-Walled Multi-Layered CFRP Pipes to Reduce Process-Induced Residual Stresses

Process-induced residual stresses may cause cracking in thick-walled multi-layered CFRP pipes during the curing of the pipes, significantly affecting the ultimate structural performance. Several factors influence the amount of the residual stresses, such as thermal and elastic properties of CFRP, and stacking sequences and dimensions of pipes. This paper deals with the optimum design of thick-walled multi-layered CFRP pipes by minimising the process-induced residual stresses under some constraints of structural stiffnesses. An analytic model based on quasi-static thermoelasticity is adopted for the calculation of the residual stresses in the multi-layered CFRP pipes. The numerical results of optimisation show that, in the case of cross-ply pipes, the residual stresses can be reduced to a certain level by controlling ply thicknesses. However, in real process conditions, the optimised pipes are susceptible to cracking because the transverse residual stress is still large in a strength-based sense. To further suppress the residual stresses, the effects of stacking sequence, wall thickness and axial pre-tension on the optimum solutions are carefully examined.