Stress relaxation experimental research and prediction of GFRP pipes under ring deflection condition

Abstract Glass fiber-reinforced plastic (GFRP) pipes are widely used as buried pipes in petrochemical and other industries. At present, in-depth studies have been conducted on GFRP pipes in terms of internal hydrostatic pressure, axial compression, and cyclic internal pressure, especially limited research has been carried out on transverse load, especially stress relaxation behavior. In this study, GFRP pipes with three different component contents were subjected to different initial deflections at different temperatures and subjected to stress relaxation tests for 1000 h. The findings demonstrate that the stress relaxation behavior of GFRP pipes is not affected by the initial deflection. Rather, it is primarily influenced by temperature and sand entrapment content, which are identified as the key factors determining the stress relaxation behavior of GFRP pipes. In addition, the time-temperature superposition principle (TTSP) was used to pass the test results to obtain a smooth master curve and verify the applicability of TTSP on GFRP pipes. Subsequently, the relaxation performance of GFRP pipes was predicted after 50 years. This research result contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of the stress relaxation behavior of GFRP through accelerated testing and offers crucial insights into the application of GFRP pipes.