Design of Oil and Gas Composite Pipes for Energy Production

Abstract

Fiber reinforced composites pipes provide excellent strength and stiffness characteristics and high corrosion and erosion resistance. In addition, the possibility to tailor the strength and stiffness characteristics by optimizing the winding angle gives the designer extra flexibility to design different pipe based on the different working conditions. These properties make them attractive for several applications including lightweight and efficient equipment for energy production applications.

In the current work, glass fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP) pipes were designed with four different winding angles. The pipes were tested under internal pressure and low velocity impact. Four different designs were manufactured using filament winding with winding angles of [±45/±45/±45], [±55/±55/±55], [±63/±63/±63], and [±63/±45/±55]. Each pipe has internal diameter of 110 mm, wall-thickness of 3.8 mm, and length of 450 mm. The pipes were exposed to internal pressure to determine their capacities and low velocity impact to assess their impact resistance. Under internal pressure, the maximum capacity was 56 bars and recorded for the pipes with [±55]₃ winding angles. All specimens failed in the same way of initial leakage, governed by matrix cracking, which causes a drop in the internal pressure. For the impact resistance, the combined orientations ([±63/±45/±55]) showed higher assessment, compared to the other pipes. This higher damage resistance can be justified by the mismatch angle effect of the adjacent plies.