Effect of radial stress relaxation on fibre stress in filament winding of thick composites

During filament winding of thick cylinders, fibre wrinkling often occurs which severely decreases compressive strength. To eliminate fibre wrinkling, appropriate processing conditions must be found. Fibre migration and stress relaxation due to resin flow are generally considered the most important factors affecting fibre buckling. Therefore, the effect of stress relaxation on fibre wrinkling during the filament winding process was investigated. To study the stress development during filament winding of thick cylinders, experiments were carried out using graphite/epoxy prepreg tows as well as dry graphite fibre. Cylinders of approximately 12 mm thickness were hoop wound on a 50.8 mm diameter aluminium mandrel. Winding tensions ranged from 13 to 34 N and winding speed was constant. A foil-type pressure sensor was applied on the mandrel to monitor the interface pressure throughout winding and storage of the cylinder. Significant stress relaxation was found to occur during winding with prepreg tow. Mandrel pressure increased over the winding of the first eight layers or so. However, between the winding of one layer and the next, mandrel pressure dropped quickly. Also, it began to decrease after reaching a maximum value. A stress relaxation analysis was carried out to determine the stress in the cylinders during winding. Several parameters were not known a priori and had to be inferred from the data. Stress distributions following winding were calculated for each case. The radial stress in prepreg wound cylinders was found to relax nearly to zero in the inner part of the tubes. Compressive circumferential stresses occurred throughout each of the cylinders. However, they reached greater magnitudes in the dry wound cylinders due to very low radial moduli. No fibre wrinkling was evident in any of the wound cylinders.