The present work aims to experimentally investigate the fire behaviour of water-filled E glass reinforced thermoset resin hybrid filament-wound composites tubes under static pressure. Heretofore, fire endurance tests have been conducted on single and adhesively bonded tubes manufactured by CTRA Company. Furthermore, internal pressure tests until failure have been performed on the burnt single and burnt joined tubes in order to quantify their abilities to contain the fluid after being exposed to heat flux. A comparison between the pressure behaviour of exposed to fire (burnt) and non-exposed tubes (single and joined) was also inspected. The identification of the fire-induced damage mechanisms of the tubes was performed through optical microscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and X-ray tomographic observations. Finally, the thermal analysis was carried-out on burnt specimens in order to better understand the multiphysical phenomenon taking place during the fire endurance tests. The experimental results have revealed that the combustion process of both single and joined tubes was described in four steps namely tube heating, resin degradation, ignition and flame decay. Moreover, it was found that no leakage was witnessed on the tubes (single and joined) outer surfaces during the fire endurance tests. The comparison between the pressure behaviour of the burnt single tube and the burnt joined one has proved that the single tube is much resistant under internal pressure loading than the burnt joined tube. Finally, the fire-induced damage included matrix cracking and delamination between the tube plies which was noticed from microscopic observations.
This work presents an experimental investigation of the post-fire flexural strength of Filament-wound Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) tubes manufactured by CTRA Company. These tubes are assembled according to both the NFT57-900 and DIN-16966 standards’ recommendations. To this end, flexural tests have been carried out on butt-to-butt assembled tubes, before and after fire endurance tests. To gain a better insight into fire-induced damage mechanisms, thermal analysis (DSC and TGA), FTIR analysis tests, as well as Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) observations have been conducted. The experimental results revealed that a water leakage was observed prior to the recommended threshold time by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) resolution. It has been also confirmed that flexural properties of the GFRP tube are degraded after the fire tests. Furthermore, a quantitative comparison for both filament tubes assembled according to the NFT and DIN standards confirms that the NFT ones depict higher resistance. Finally, damage investigation reveals that the main observed forms of damage occurring during this experiments are delamination and matrix cracking phenomena. The main novelties of this work are (a) extending the classic analysis carried out on simple composite plate to cover water-filled GFRP assembled tubes subject to fire endurance test, and (b) the experimental investigation of DIN and NFT butt welded joined pipes under three point loading prior and post fire endurance test.
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