Analyses and experimental study about impact damage of COPV

The composite overwrapped pressure vessel (COPV) is sensitive to impact, and even small impact damage may cause serious consequences. In order to investigate the impact damage to the COPV, both the finite element (FE) method and the experimental method are employed. Based on the ANSYS software, the FE model is developed, and the drop test module provided by ANSYS/LS-DYNA is used to analyse the impact of the COPV. In order to carry out experimental studies, there are three positions that are selected as the impact positions on the cylindrical section of the COPV. In every impact position, there are five impact spots, and the impact energies are 10J, 15J, 20J, 25J, and 30J, separately. Four experiments were successively carried out, including the impact test, the ultrasonic detection of impact damage, the depth detection of impact pit, and the experiment of thermal deply. The calculated results from the proposed FE model were compared with the corresponding test results. The relations of impact damage to both impact energy and impact position were revealed, and some characteristics and laws of the impact damage were illuminated.