SS 1359.835X(05)00071-2 Campari. Par A298 (1996) 29-35 Copyright 1 19% Fhener Soees Limite Dats Gest Brin Al rights reserved Th eNVE SISO A study of the failure behaviour of key—lock joints in glass fibre reinforced plastic pipework A. Fahrer* and A. G. Gibson Centre for Composite Materials Engineering, University of Newcastle, Newcastle-upon- Tyne, NET 7RU, UK and P. Tolhoek Ameron Fiberglass Pipe Division, 4190 CA Geldermalsen, The Netherlands (Received 8 August 1995) Combined load tests on key Jock joints showed 4 incar correlation between the internal failure pressure and axial tensile o Hexral loads, ial tests the joint consistently failed ut a location er o the Bottom oF the groove inthe male part. which made it posible t model the fulure in lems of loud per unit length of tack ccumference. PC-based finite clement package Was used 10 model the local sess distribution around the joint. The Tsai-Wu and the maximum stress ctteria accurately predicted the location of the inl damage. The pressure corresponding o predicted hist damage was approximately the same as that at Which the fist audible racks were beard, which was considerably lower than the final failure pressure. The critical stage of joint fulore was observed to involve an interesting practical example of mode I Fracture For the particular geometry in question the predicted fracture load is independent of crack length, suggesting that the mod Il crack propagated under approximately constant fd. Values of Gc from the pipe tests agreed well with these Tor glass epoxy laminates Found inthe hieraturs, Keywords: glassepon pgs: keylock oa: alae Hea) INTRODUCTION ‘The high specific strength and corrosion resistance of filament wound glass reinforced epony (GRE) pipework has ted to its increasing use in the offshore oil and chemical industries (0 transport a variety of Muids ‘One special offshore application is in firewater pipe work!, where GRE pipes have been shown to offer & safe and reliable alternative to steel and other metals, ‘Other applications’ * inelude chemical process piping. temporary pipelines and pipe systems for corrosive liquids GRE pipework offers the choive of wo joining methods: one based on adhesive bonding, the other on ‘a mechanical joint. known as the key lock. The adhesive joint, as shown in Figure I. as either straight or tapered mating pieces, which are boneled with a thermosetting *To whom coespondence shoul be addr epoxy adhesive. This isthe strongest form of connection. ‘Once the adhesive is cured however, the joint cannot be taken apart again, which restricts the range of use of this type of joint ‘The principle of the key-lock joint is shown in Figure 2, The axial load due to internal pressure is supported by a eylindrical nylon Key, which cam be inserted into preformed grooves in the male and female pipe ends. The hydraulic seal is achieved by means of a separate O-ring. The joint is assembled by inserting the nylon Key into the matching grooves by passing it through « tangential hole in the female pipe end. The joint can be dismantled by removing the Key. Although the strength of this mechanical joint is fess than that of ‘an adhesive pipe joint, the system is quicker to assemble and can also be taken apart. This type of joint is widely used in (lemporary) pipelines und can operate under ground under high pressures, up to 60 bar working pressure for a 209mm (Sin) diameter pipe, and elevated temperatures, up t0 95°C, 429Failure of key-lock joints in GRE pipework: A. Fahrer ota Adhesive bond Female end Male end R Figwe 1 Schematic of an abesvely bonded pipe jin. Ths type of jelnt s commonly bonded with a thermoseng adhesive and the Strongest orm of connection. Howser once the ae cate the joint cannot be taken apart again which resets its ange of we ond Nylon key Matecas Figare2_ Schematic ofthe key-osk jt. Axial ad supported | means of «cylindrical nylon key which i inserted at preformed {poovesinthemale and female ppc cd. The hydraulic seal achieved by means ofa separate ruber O-ing ae 209 ~ GRP | pipe adhesive bond Figure 3. End Siting for combined oud tests om 209mm ey ook jm Te Being are based on an adieu bond ete the taped GRE pie nds sd lumina Bxtres EXPERIMENTAL Installed pipe systems are often subject to axial or flexural loads in addition co internal pressure. These loads can be caused by, for example, misalignments the system, thermal fluctuations or solf-weight. Such 430 rd ‘peal job =-4q Roam St Se Te —t = qe = ei Figure 4 Exporiental strange oe combi pressure and axial nfexaal laud testing I al ets the external ead was maintained, Ste the fternal pressure was inte nearly, unt the ont failed Inthe Bera tess the jos was acd such na) Tha Ihe ety Pot of te Key was Toate atthe natal ai ofthe in Fr tt jot 700) 160 ‘opted Aaa Tena Lous Figure Flureemelope showings strong liner correlton between falls presse and applied asia Toi. A sme lnear corelton appeared 10 appl) Tor the peste at which the fist sible damage ‘rae heard loads can of course influence the failure pressure of the pipe system and the joints in particular. Pipe joints (209mm inside diameter) were tested under internal pressure in combinations with axial tensile or flexural loads. The end fittings, shown in Figure 3, are based on an adhesive bond between the tapered GRE pipe ends and fixtures. All tests were performed by bonding the fittings to the pipe ends, applying the external tensile or flexural load, and recording the joint failure pressure. The external loads, shown in Figure 4, were kept constant during pressur- izing, In the flexural tests the joint was placed in such \way that the entry point of the key end was positioned al the neutral axis of the joint, thereby ensuring that the bending stresses on the discontinuity of the key were ‘minimal RESULTS During the tests audible acoustic events were oceasion~ ally heard, which indicated material damage. Joint failure was usually accompanied by a loud cracking, noise. Results for the combined pressure and tensile load, are shown in Figure 5, and for the combined pressure and, flexural load in Figure 6, The results showed a good,Failure of key-lock joints in GRE pipework: A. Faheer otal Far ot jit aa ‘Api Banaing Moment on Figue 6. Failasconvcone showing st corso ete fare vestire and apps fending roe sila exertion ppd to aly Lr the prsaue thick The fit she dams se hese £70" covers 54° covers Toe cack Liner Heep woid Crack Crackin inet Figue 7 Damage and ‘ure sequense Damape ws obsred 10| inte in both grooms ul onl propapied all tr the te Chmponcnt Furic. cack nth Haat mal eve obstied linear correlation between the failure pressure and the: externally applied load or moment. When the best-fit line in Figure 5 is extrapolated 10 zero pressure conditions the axial failure load equals MOKN. which corresponds with an internal pressure of | approximately Si bat. As this is nearly the final failure pressure of the joint it ean be concluded that the hoop stress. induced by the internal pressuce, does not greatly influence joint failure ‘The piessure at which the first audible damage was noted is shown in Figures 5 and 6, These results also showed a linear correlation between pressure and external loading. FAILURE AND DAMAGE SEQUENCE, Sectioning the joint alter testing showed a consistently repeatable failure mode involving the male component, as shown in Figure 7. The male component is wound on 4 mandrel using £54 und +70 orientated covers ‘measured from the pipe avis) and the key and sealing sgrooves are machined into the material. The female Component is wound with identical orientations and additional 99 covers, However. unlike the male compo= nent. the groove is pressed into the material during the winding operation, As sketched in Figure 7, failure appeared to be initiated from a location near to the root of the male key-zroove nd damage progressed in the spreading of circumferential erack. As the winding angle in this part ‘ofthe joint was +70 . the fibres offered little resistance 10 this propagation. When the crack reached the interfuce between the different orientated covers an interply erack was observed to propagate along the pipe in the axial direction. A possible explanation is that the change in winding angle obstructed crack growth in its ‘initial direction and forced it to propagate in the axial direction aasan interply crack. Circumferential cracks around the key-groove were also found in the female component. but were not ‘observed to grow in the axial direction as in the male component. Explanations for this are the lower load. caused by the slightly larger diameter, and the wavy pattern of the covers, caused by pressing the groove into the material THEORETICAL ANALYSIS Considering the linear correlation between internal failure pressure and externally applied Toads, and the observed failure mode. it was felt that failure could be expressed in terms of axial load per unit circumferential Jength. of the crack in the male pipe end. In most circumstances, will be influenced by the axial component of the internal pressure in the pipe. There will, however, be additional components due to any’ externally applied loads, so the overall load per unit length can be expressed as the summation w= Wy EE hs o Where Wye) and Wi fe W due to internal pressure, saial tensile loading and the maximum component from, flexural loading. respectively The circumferential length in question will be 2 R.. where R, is the radius at which the interply crack propagates. The overall axial component of pressure Foading will be pr(R +A)". in whieh p is the intemal pressure, & is the inner pipe diameter and ft is the wall thickness of the male joining part. This will be assumed to act over the crack circumference 2=R., giving yn, IRA ae Similarly an avial tensile foad F; ating on the joint will ive Cy eo ‘The engineering theory of bending (ETB) was used to derive an expression for sma. The Rexural loading on keylock joint. as shown in Figure 8, was assumed to act as. line load around the circumference of the interply crack at radius R_and vary linearly with distance y from the neutral axis. Hence, wy can be expressed as 431Failure of key-lock joints in GRE pipework: A. Fahrer 6 a. Figure 8 Beading ress applied on the ey tock oat, The Boel loads assume to act as he load around the oreomerence ofthe fmtrpy crack at radius Ren vary hcl th ora Prosar ss 8 8 30 Too 160 "200 250300 ‘Ota owe Figere 9. Flare enslope comparing ail lo ts ests futon {Gi th cst equation (7) and ttl lad restbation auton eins tliat nec er = Wa where tjmay is the maximum load per unit circumfer- ential ength (which occurs at v = R,). Although the load, due to flexure varies around the circumference of the crack, failure ofthe joint will be assumed to correspond, to the maximum tensile value stim. Making use of v= Risin and de= R-d®, the bending moment on a {eross-section atthe distance y from the neutral axis. 44 ccan be written as aM = mye = Wg SRR, 8 = Wine sin? 0d 6 a ‘The total bending moment M over the crack circumfer- cence can be found by integrating equation (5) over the circumference, as =F Whe @) Rearranging equation (6). jig ean be found as M. roan = Spe 7 aR ‘where 4M is the bending moment on the key-lock joint. Substituting equations (2), (3) and (7) in equation (1), the failure envelopes for intial pressure versus axial load and internal pressure versus flexural Joad can be combined on one plot of internal pressure versus w. as 432 CagL, Cusp Cael O=T FE Figee 10 Elastic condiion (0, partial oad retistbtion (lt) and {otal oad redstabation MI} conatins. The actual ses distibuton ‘Sthought to be partly redbuled over the crack crewmen, inenetl Shown in Figure 9. In this igure it cam be seen that, for an identical we, the samples tested under flexure fail at Slightly higher pressures than those under tensile load. ‘A possible explanation for this is that erack propaga- tion around the circumference of the pipe allows & significant redistribution of stress, in a way that 90) longer corresponds with the ETB, Notwithstanding this, equation (7) could be used for design purposes, as it ‘would give a positive safety margin, STRESS REDISTRIBUTION APPROACH Later in this paper it will be argued that failure occurs, driven by axial load, through the propagation of an axial crack inthe male joining part. This erack spreads initially in the circumferential direction and then axially. It will be argued that, under the condition of mode IL crack propagation (which applies here). the crack, between the +54" and +70" covers, will propagate under approxi- ‘mately constant load. The effect of this will be to redistribute the local loading around the joint over 2 much larger distance than would be the ease for purely clastic bending. In some respects, this oad redistribution ccan be considered to be analogous to the elastic-plastic behaviour that would occur in a metallic component under Nexuee. ‘Case IL in Figure 10 shows a condition that would be analogous to the fully plastic bending situation Although this case is not thought to oceur in the GRE pipes (ease II being nearer to the real situation), it Fepresenis one extreme of behaviour and is simpler to describe than case I so it will be used here. If were ‘assumed to be constant over the crack circumference, as incase II, this would give p= Nima 8) Using the same approach as previously. this leads 10 M Winn = 3 0 1 can be seen that equation (9) is similar to equation (7), as the dominator merely increases from x to, Figure 9 ‘hows the failure pressure versus w under stress redis- lribution conditions. This approach appears (© ft the experimental data FINITE ELEMENT (FE) MODELLING OF JOINT BEHAVIOUR ‘The NISA PC-based finite element package was used t0Failure of key-lock joints in GRE pipework: A. Fahrer otal Figure 11 Unidisctiona ply cooediats For medline purposes ane fie compote at fen though oe Bu ap arena ks Inahsse piesa her are ned oR align in he creo Sind prfecty bond with plastic ates Us the 2 sd “stony ate elle he bie the ranserefe dthe reg Acknes diechoe:eapestiney Table 1 Unidirectional cise ply onsunls, tints! with the olin Tai equations = waeGP b= ss2are = S200 Gh = incr = 12GP model the streses ina key lock joint under pure pressure conditions. Although such an analysis will not be able to predict total join failure. being a case of crack propagation. itis possible to predict damage initiation in the key-groove. In the discussion of this analysis, all stresses are expressed in the unidirectional laminated ply coordinate system shown in Figure 11 ‘The key lock joint geometry was modelled using design drawings supplied by Ameron. and the ply arrangements and fibre orientations according to optical microscopy results. Mieromechanies were used 10 cal- culate the unidirectional elastic ply constants from the clastic properties of the matris. and fibres and their volume fractions in the, laminate, Application of the Halpin-Tsai equations"? resulted in the ply constants shown in Table 1. which were used to simulate the mechanical behaviour of the filament wound composite ‘material Failure, was modelled with the Tsai-Wu failure criterion’. which is an empirical polynomial eriterion that is often used in finite element analysis because of its computational convenience. It defines failure surface of 4 fractional form. f. and assumes some interaction of stress components. First ply failure under combined louding is assumed when f reaches unity. By combining all the stress components in a funetional form no prediction of failure mode can be made. The coupling covfficients for the Tsai-Wu failure criterion, aecounting {or the interaction of stress components, were estimated as suggested elsewhere’. As failure properties. for composite materials have been extensively studied in the past, it was felt that these properties could be obtained from the literature", The suggested unidiree: tional laminated ply failure properties for E-glass fibre reinforcement in an epoxy matrix with a fibre volume fraction of 0,60 are presented in Tuble 2 We 2 Failure proper for undstionalaminad ply of gas Abe einorcement nan pony mates with bre some fraction ‘Tome stenath i the Laestion, (MP) 1000 ompresive stent in te Tadeton (MP) (0 Tenn stength inte 2 diction, ng (MB) M0 ‘Tensile strength in the 3tirection, (MPa) M0) Compressive stent inthe Secu (MPa) LO ‘Shear stenath inthe 2-plane-ms M9} 90 Shear sienath nthe [plone 90 MPa 3 ‘Shear stength inthe 23-pla.o (MPa) 30 ‘The PC-based version of the finite element package was limited t© 5000 degrees of freedom, which made it necessary to model the male and female component separately and ignore the contact problem between the key and key-groove. Therefore, a sensitivity analysis was carried out using empirical load distributions between key and groove. simulating an operating pressure of 2bar. The problem was treated as an axisymmetric one And analysed under static conditions, ‘As shown in Figure 12, the effect of the different ‘empirical load disteibutions on the predicted ply stresses appeared to be small and the model was observed to be ‘insensitive to the way in which the stresses were applied to the key-groove. The highest stresses were found at 0.7 to O8 times the depth of the key-groove. At these locations the Tsai Wu criterion predicted conditions close to frst ply damage, although the modelled stresses were clearly higher in the male component. Comparing, the ply stresses with maximum allowable stresses, as in Table 2. it was found that the first damage conditions \were initiated by high (interlaminar) shear and through- thickness stresses. The predicted location of frst damage ‘corresponded with the failure initiation point in the male ey-groove and the predicted pressure value agreed approximately with the observed acoustic events in the load test, FRACTURE MECHANICS ‘A common mode of fracture in composite laminates is delamination, which may be regarded as the propagation of an interply crack. A measure of the resistance of the ‘material t0 delamination is the interlaminar fracture ‘energy. which can be measured using linear elastic fracture mechanics. thus enabling the critical energy release rate Ge to be determined, Unlike homogeneous metals or polymerie materials, the fracture of continuous fibre composites cannot be ‘modelled by a single linear fracture parameter Ge. Three modes of fracture are identified: mode I (tensile opening). mode II (in-plane shear) and mode Il (scissor blade) Furthermore. combinations of these fracture modes ean ‘occur and each mode has its own evitical energy release The most Frequently observed modes of fracture are mode Ind mode II.as shown in Figure 13. Mode Tis the 433Failure of key-Tock joints in GRE pipework: A. Fahrer et al Stress distribution in the male key-groove Assumed loading y=0 o 15. Oy 36 Op Cose 2 All stresses in MPa Figure 12_ Sues dstibution an Tsi-W fire parameter inthe mal ey-arove fortwo psf sume ead dstnbutn: ase parabolic and {Xe nea The flowing seven diagrams show Ibe sites nthe ponspal materi resto and the Tai-W fue parame, or a modeled pressure o 20 ar ‘curat 01 10 0 hme the dept ofthe prove Mode 1 Mode Il heures disutions urn the groove were ound a em or bo canes leo the male omnes preted 6 re 13. Mode 1 (tensile opening) and mode ML G-plane sear) fare, Characteristic ofeach ode the dcsonin which he cack + lowest fracture energy for isotropic materials and, thus, a crack will always propagate along a path normal to the direction of the maximum principal tensile stress Hence, a crack in an isotropic plate will propagate in mode I fracture, regardless of the orientation of the initial flaw with respect to the applied stress However, this is not necessarily the ease for crack growth in fibre composites, which are inhomogeneous and highly anisotropic materials. In these materials the initial interlaminar defect is constrained and often continues to propagate in the same plane between the laminae regardless of the orientation of the crack to the applied loads. Thus in these materials mode I failure is possible and, obviously, mixed mode 1/1 may also be observed In the combined load tests final failure consistently ‘occurred in the male part of the joint, Although only the final failure event was observed to propagate in mode Il it was fet thatthe overall joint failure could be modelled in terms of mode Il fracture. Considering a mode It 434 Figure 14 Schematic reposntton of mods I fitre inthe male Pipe nd in erowtacton of the hey lock jl, The cock enh i ‘tube make pipe ead wih ‘crack propagating ina body. the energy release rate Gy ‘ean be derived from (ee Bae in which Uis the total elstcenerayin the body, and and are the width and the erack length respectively. Figure 1 shows a sketch of the mode II failure i the aale component. In this figue/s the wall thickness of the male part Risthe inne pipe ads and isthe depth of the key-groove. By applying an axial load F to the joint the erack length ¢inereases witha length de. The Change in total body energy dU’ due to crack growth from ¢ to (e-+ de) can be expressed as it au =! 4,de—$ in which £ isthe modulus ofthe joint in the dtection of Gc uo) ade 7 And 4)Failure of key-lock joints in GRE pipework: A. Faber etal ‘rack propagation. and A,, dy, %, and oy are given by RE = aR? Ay = AR +h) ‘This results! in Ge ER, An important feature to note in equation (13) is that the riving force for crack propagation, F, is independent of crack length. This implies that the mode TI crack will propagate under approximately constant load. By substituting equations (2) (3) and (9) in equation (1), F can be rewritten as Mw aR F tpn Rot (ay Numerical values for Gyc were caleulated from the combined load tests as 1.794 0.21 kim, taking R, Re and hi equal to 104.5mm, 109.5mm and 12.Smm, respectively. & was taken as the axial pipe modulus, \which was 11.0 GPa. Inthe literature!" energy release rates for unidirectional fibre-reinforced laminates were found to vary from 0.65 to 2.05kIm"*. Although the ‘numerical values calculated here are for filament-wound specimens with 84° and 70° oriented covers, they are ‘consistent with the literature ‘On the assumption that Gye is constant, an expres: sion for the axial failure load of key-lock joints can be Found by rewriting equation (13) as nV Gu (13) in which ais a constant depending on the key-lock ‘geometry F CONCLUSIONS 1) Combined toad tests on key-lock joints with a 209mm inner pipe diameter showed that there is a linear correlation etween failure pressure and applied axial load or bending moment, and failure consistently occurred in the male component 2) Damage in the male joint was observed to initiate at a location near to the root of the key-groove. This damage appeared to propagate through the top +70 oriented covers and changed to an interply crack ‘when it reached the =54° covers, causing the joint to fail, 3) Simple mechanical theory, based on the engineering theory of bending, underestimated the internal pressure in combined pressure and bending. moment conditions. A different approach, allowing for stress redistribution, showed better agreement with the ‘experimental results, This indicated that the failure pressure of a key-lock joint under combined loading. ‘conditions is linear function of the internal pressure, the axial load and the bending moment. 4) Linear elastic fracture mechanics for mode II resulted in an expression for Gyc that was independent of crack length. This indicates thatthe interply erack, the final failure event, propagates under approximately constant load. The obtained numerical values for Gye were consistent with values for unidirectional fibre reinforced laminates found in the literature 5) With a PC-based finite element analysisit was possible to predict the location of onset of damage in the key- grooves, which also agreed with the first audible events. Additionally, damage was predicted to occur first in the key-groove in the male part, which coincided with experimental observations, ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work was carried out as part fulfilment of the Degree of Master of Science at the University of Twente, ‘The Netherlands. The authors wish to thank Professor P. Powell. Group of Engineering Design in Plastics, Department of Mechanical Engineering, for his help and guidance. REFERENCES 1 Cara SA 3D. and HontoonG. Feels rawater ‘ystems fr offshore platforms. Paper OTC 6924, "Peo. Hed ‘nual Otsbore Technology Cont” Houston, TX, May 18 pp ase ‘Rwmeron Bonstand Refeence Guide. 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