Composite Structures 32 (199.5) 331-343 Ekvier Science Limited Printed in Great Britain 0263-8223I95lS9.

50 0263-8223(95)00028-3

Composite pressure hulls for deep ocean submersibles

Derek Graham
DRA, Dunfennline, Fife KY11 2XR, Scotland UK

DRA Dunfermline first became involved in the development of a composite pressure hull for a deep ocean submersible with the NERC Autosub project and this work has continued under the European MAST II programme. This paper describes the analysis which has been carried out in support of an extensive programme of model testing. An anisotropic Lame solution has been developed for the analysis of cylindrical components under external pressure and this was used to evaluate some of the popular failure criteria. Extensive use was also made of the Finite Element method.

INTRODUCTION
Tethered remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) are routinely used in the off-shore industry but there are many potential applications for a completely autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) with full ocean depth capability. DRA Dunfermlines fn-st involvement in the development of such a vehicle came with the NERC (Natural Environment Research Council) AUTOSUB project. This was originally prompted by contern about climatic changes such as global warming and the need to understand fully the influence of the oceans in climatic behaviour. The ultimate objective is to develop a free swimming robotic instrument which is capable of repeated dives to full ocean depth, while continuously monitoring its surroundings. Other applications include the exploration and exploitation of resources from the ocean bed or perhaps under ice covered polar seas which are inaccessible by other means. Submersibles which are capable of reaching great depths have of course been around for some time. The pressure hulls of These vessels are typically constructed of high strength steels or alloys of aluminium or titanium. This gives high weight to displacement ratios which makes them unsuitable for use in an autonomous vehicle with limited energy carrying capability, which has long endurance requirements. New materials such as solid glass, ceramics, ceramic
331

composites and metal matrix composites have great potential but are considered technically unfeasible at present. This leaves glass or carbon fibre reinforced polymers as the only current option which will provide a pressure hull with a low enough weight to displacement ratio to allow the required payload to be carried. Most authors appear to favour the theoretically stronger carbon fibre composites, see for example Smith and Stachiw & Frame.2 Experimental work for both the AUTOSUB and the European Marine Science and Technology MAST II programmes has been carried out using the high pressure test facilities at DRA Dunfermline. A range of small scale (typically about one-sixth) fibre wound specimens have been tested under hydrostatic pressure as cylinders in the Ultra-High Pressure Vessel or as short ring specimens in a specially developed ring tester. Over a period of time a range of specimens have been produced by different manufacturers. Glass fibres and a variety of carbon fibres have been used in different epoxy resins, specimen wall thickness has been varied and alternative winding configurations have been employed. All specimens were fully strain gauged and the resulting data was used to provide measured values of material elastic properties and strengths. The main topic of this paper is the associated analysis, which has been carried out in parallel with the programme of testing.

332

D. Graham

ANALfYSIS A theoretical solution has been developed for an externally pressurised, thick walled composite cylinder with uniform, non-zero axial strain. This was initially developed for a cylinder consisting of orthotropic layers, described by Graham & Anderson,3 but has been extended to include shear coupling and thermal effects in individual laminae in a similar manner to that described by Tzeng & Chien.4 Extensive use has also been made of the Finite Element Method to investigate the fully three dimensional behaviour of test cylinders. The package ASAS-NL was used. Theoretical solution For a single lamina with one axis of material symmetry the constitutive relations in cylindrical coordinates are
-cl, Cl2 Cl3 0 0 -Cl, Cl2 c22 c23 0 0 C26 Cl3 c23 c33 0 0 C36 0 0 0 c44 c45 0 0 0 0 c 45 c55 0 Cl6 C26 C36 0 0 C66

Using eqns (1) and (2), eqn (3) can be written in terms of the displacements as

r2
where

-+r i3r2

a%

--A2u=@(r,AT,E,) ar

au

(4)

C p=22 C 33 and qb(r, AT,.?,) is the forcing general solution of eqn (4) is
u=c&+pr-+Y(r,AT,&)

function.

The
(9

where a and /3 are unknown coefficients and Y(r, AT,&) is the known particular solution. Equations (l), (2) and (5) can be used to express strains and stresses in terms of the coefficients M.and p, for example the radial stress becomes
o,=car~--dBr_~-+ee,+gAT (6)

E,-ci,AT .

(1)

where the suffices z, 8 and r denote the axial, circumferential and radial directions, respectively. Assuming that all shear strain components vanish, the remaining strain components relate to the displacement field thus

au
El=%
,

i3W

se=- r and E,=-=E

a.2

(2)

where E, is the assumed constant axial strain. For the condition of axisymmetry and uniform axial behaviour the appropriate equilibrium equation is
-+

aor
ar

cr--tJe
Y

=O.

(3)

where c, d and e are functions of the stiffness coefficients and g is a function of the stiffness coefficients and the coefficients of thermal expansion. The coefficients a and /? are found for each layer by applying the boundary conditions cr,=O on the inner surface and rsr= -P on the outer surface, and the compatibility of radial stress and displacement at each interface between layers. Once these coefficients have been determined, the radial displacements are obtained from eqn (5), strains are obtained from eqns (5) and (2) and stresses are obtained from equations similar to eqn (6). This analysis has been programmed in FORTRAN for a PC and provides a rapid solution to the problem of an externally pressurised filament wound cylinder. Input data required by the program includes the nine elastic constants and three coefficients of thermal expansion of a single lamina in the lamina coordinate system (e.g., El is the Youngs modulus in the fibre direction and E2 the transverse direction, etc.) as well as the radius, thickness and details of the lay-up of the cylinder. Loading consists of the external pressure, a constant axial strain and a temperature difference, any of which can be set to zero. Imposed axial strain was chosen as an input since this was directly measured during tests,

Composite pressure hulls however, as a check, the resulting axial load and equivalent end pressure were included in the output for comparison with the actual applied pressure. To provide a more general analysis tool it is intended to provide the facility to specify both internal pressure and axial load as input conditions. The lamina elastic properties are transformed, using the lay-up information, to give the stiffness matrix C in eqn (l), in cylindrical coordinates. The stresses and strains can then be calculated, in cylindrical coordinates, as described above. For each lamina the stresses can be transformed from the global cylindrical coordinate system to the local lamina axes using 611
022 =

333

1 S+

1 -_~22

1
~32 611g22

1 1 -_z+S32 1 1

Cl2

ii
X

0, i i
fJB bze

m2 n2 -mn

n2 m2 mn

2mn -2mn (m-n)

1
(7)

(9

Again, tensile or compressive strengths are used as appropriate. The most general polynomial criterion is that of Tsai & WU,~ given by Fioi+FqaiQj=l where i,j= 1,2,. . .6 and 1 1 F1=---_---SlT Sic 1 F3~-----s371 ; F2~------

(10)

where m =cosO and n =sin 19.The through thickness stress, c33 is assumed to remain equal to the radial stress or. In theory the stresses in lamina coordinates can be used in conjunction with a failure criterion to predict the failure pressure of a cylinder, provided buckling does not occur. Some of the popular failure criteria have been investigated. The maximum stress or maximum strain criteria can be useful in situations where stresses are highly unidirectional but for general loading some form of polynomial criterion is generally considered more suitable. A number of possibilities have been considered and programmed for comparison. The first, and simplest, was a version of the Azzi-Tsai criterion, given in eqn (8).
-_-

1 s2c

S2T 1 s3c

* )

1
;
F22=

F11=

SlrSlc

s27S2c

1
F33=

s37S3c

dl

fJllC22

0222

62

S12

SlS2

+ s22 +s=

(8)

1 1 F&$=; Fss=s132 S232 F12= -1 1 2 Js 17Sl~S27S2~ Fi3= -1 1 2 Jsl~sl~s3*s3~ F23= _ 1 2 &2TS2cS3TS3c

1 F@j=s122

(11)

where Sl is the strength in the fibre direction, S 2 the strength transverse to the fibres and S 12 the in plane shear strength. If these strengths are different in tension and compression then the appropriate value is used depending on the sign of each stress component. The Tsai-Hill criterion accounts for a fully three-dimensional stress system and is shown in eqn (9) (from Ochoa & Reddy6).

334

D. Graham
250 1

Subscripts T and C denote strengths in tension and compression. This was used in two forms; its two-dimensional plane stress form (1) and its full three-dimensional form (2). Although this criterion is widely and successbe aware of its fully used, one should limitations. It does not differentiate between the very different modes of failure which occur in composite materials and also leads to the physically unlikely situation where failure under purely tensile stresses is dependent on the comof the material and pressive strengths vice-versa. Hashing has attempted to overcome these difficulties by considering tensile and compressive, fibre and matrix modes separately. His criteria have not yet been included in the computer program but were considered, in some cases, for comparison.

END REINFORCEMENT

Fig. 1.

Typical test cylinder dimensions.

Finite element analysis Finite element analysis was employed for several reasons. It was used to provide some verification of the theoretical model, to investigate axial variations due to end effects and to investigate overall buckling behaviour. A typical test cylinder is shown in Fig. 1. The ends were overwound to reduce stress levels near the supports and ensure that failure occurred within the test section. Figure 2 shows three finite element idealisations of a test cylinder. The first uses 8-noded axisymmetric elements and provides a rapid and detailed analysis of the stress distribution throughout the cylinder. It does not, however, give any information about nonaxisymmetric buckling which was observed to occur in some of the thinner cylinders. The second model uses 8-noded thick shell elements, with variable thickness, to provide a threedimensional analysis. The length to thickness ratio of the shell elements became rather low for the thicker-walled cylinders and so the third model, which uses 20-noded brick elements, was developed. This model is fully three-dimensional but is significantly more costly in terms of computer memory and CPU time. Axisymmetric elements were used to model a slice of cylinder under plane strain conditions to give a direct comparison with the analytical solution described in the previous section and also to compare with the predicted stresses in the test section of the specimens. Figure 3 shows circumferential and longitudinal stress

distributions, calculated through the thickness, for a 20 mm thick cylinder of tenax carbon fibres in epoxy resin, fibre wound at &55. These cylinders were wound at DRA Fort Halstead and detailed material property data was supplied.g For comparison the stress distributions were also calculated for a similar cylinder of steel. Although the total forces must be the same, the anisotropic nature of the CFRP cylinder gives a very different distribution of stress with surprising results. In the isotropic cylinder the longitudinal stress is constant through the thickness while the circumferential stress decreases monotonically from the inner surface. Conversely, in this particular CFRP cylinder both longitudinal and circumferential stresses have maximum values on the outer surface with minima at some internal location. The form of the stress distribution in an anisotropic cylinder is dependent on the degree of anisotropy of the cylinder and this in turn is dependent on the properties of the material used and also the layup pattern. Thus Fig. 3 illustrates only one possible example from an effectively infinite range of possibilities. In this case differences of up to almost 20% exist between the isotropic and anisotropic solutions. Agreement is excellent, within l%, between the theoretical solution and the FE solution under plane strain conditions. Stresses calculated at the mid-bay of the supported cylindrical specimen differ by up to 1.6% for the circumferential stresses and up to 2.2% for the longitudinal stresses although this may be influenced by the fact that a coarser

Composite pressure hulls

FJSMGEWFEMVIEW 2.3~05.D zGiGiiq

335
SDEc94

D.R.A. DUNFERMLINE (CRAY) pGcGEq

Fig. 2.

Finite element

idealisations

of test cylinders.

mesh was employed. In any event it would appear that the stresses at the centre of the test section are reasonably close to those in a long cylinder. Figure 4 shows the stress distributions throughout a typical cylindrical specimen, 20 mm thick in this case, calculated using the axisymmetric FE model, and it can be seen that the dominant stresses, i.e. longitudinal and circumferential (Figs 4.2 and 4.3), are reduced in the thickened end sections. More detailed inspection reveals that the stresses are all constant, to within a few percent, over a central span of about 80 mm, just over half the test

section. The analysis reveals two potential stress concentrations, in particular of interlaminar shear (Fig. 4.4). The most severe is at the inner edge where the specimen is supported but this is very localised. Perhaps of more concern is the stress concentration on the outer surface where the end overwinding tapers onto the test section. There has been no direct experimental evidence that failure initiates in the region of this stress concentration but it is difficult to establish the exact mode of failure since hydrostatic collapse normally results in substantial destruction of the specimens.

336 -220 -230 3 8 -240 -250 -260 -270 -280 -290 62.5 67.5
*@l%xlretical

D. Graham

72.5 radius (mm)

77.5

82.5

4CFRP plane strain cylinder

+CFRP supported cylinder -cSteelplane strain cylinder (a)

62.5

67.5

72.5 radius (mm)

77.5

82.5

+Tbeoretical (b)
Fig. 3.

4CFRP plane E&R&I cyliuder

-c CFRP supported cylinder -t Steel plane strain cylinder

Comparison of predicted stresses for 20 mm thick cylinders: (a) circumferential stresses; (b) longitudinal stresses.

EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS Some early tests carried out for the NERC AUTOSUB project proved to be somewhat disappointing. Theoretical work by Smith et a1.l favoured a polar wound CFRP cylinder, with a 2 : 1 distribution of circumferential and longitudinal fibres, from a range of options which included glass or carbon fibres in epoxy resin and polar and helical winding configurations. A number of specimen cylinders, which were approximately 1/6th scale with internal diameter of 125 mm and a nominal thickness of 12 mm, were obtained from two manufacturers. When

hydrostatically loaded, these cylinders failed at lower than expected pressures and there was evidence to suggest that some of the cylinders were tending to buckle. Mechanical testing of offcuts from the specimens,r gave a Youngs modulus, in the longitudinal direction, of less than half that which had been calculated and used in the original analysis. This raised serious doubts about the quality of the manufacturing process as well as the ability to provide reliable analyses. Collaboration with DRA Fort Halstead, who have considerable experience in the manufacture of filament wound components, resulted in

Composite pressure hulls

FEMGEN/pEMvIEw 2.3-0S.D D.RA. DuNwlMLINE -1 (CRAW 6DEC94

337

izFzG&q

Fig.

4. Axisymmetric stress distributions.

the supply of a number of cylinders of varying materials, thicknesses and winding configurations, to be tested as part of the MAST II program. From a small initial batch the helically wound carbon fibre/epoq composite was selected for further investigation. XAS high strength (low modulus) carbon fibres and epoxy resin were used and the winding angle of the cylinders was f55. Cylinders of nominally 6 mm, 8 mm, 14 mm and 20 mm wall thickness and 125 mm internal diameter were supplied and tested. Details of the experimental results and supporting FE calculations are described by Graham & AndersonI More recently a number of 20 mm thick helically wound cylinders manufactured

using Tenax carbon fibres and epoxy resin have been tested. These were seen as a suitable replacement after the discontinuation of the supply of XAS fibres. All measured collapse pressures for the 455 carbon fibre wound cylinders (both XAS and Tenax) are shown in Fig. 5 which will be discussed in more detail in the following sections. XAS +55 cylinders The first cylinders to be tested were 14 mm thick since these were expected to be most representative of a full scale hull capable of reaching ocean depth, corresponding to hydro-

338

D. Graham

A A

r
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 2 Strain Gauge

Number

0 0
5

10

I5

20

25

Wall Thickness (mm)

Strain Gauge Number

Fig. 5. Collapse pressures of hydrostatically cylinders. tested

static pressure of 60 MPa, with reasonable safety factors. The cylinders were strain gauged internally with twelve right angle pairs, 30 apart, at mid-length. Cylinders were loaded axially, at relatively low levels to avoid nonlinearity or damage, to provide a measure of axial stiffness, and then hydrostatically loaded to destruction. In total, five of these cylinders were tested after an initial batch of three had produced some surprising results. Circumferential strains to failure of three of them are shown in Fig. 6. Cylinder (a) apparently shows an n=2 type collapse while (b) shows an n=3 collapse. Cylinder (c) gives no indication of overall buckling but it is thought that some localised failure may be responsible for the spikes observed in the later traces, see Ref. 12. The other two cylinders gave no indication of buckling although one of them may have given a falsely low pressure because of leakage, although not at the lowest observed collapse pressure. There was considerable scatter in the observed collapse pressures which ranged from 65 MPa to 90 MPa, with only the highest of these giving a satisfactory safety factor. Using laminate material properties supplied by the manufacturer,13 both three-dimensional FE models predicted elastic buckling pressures of the order of 200 MPa, two to three times

11

13

IS

17

19 21

23

Strain Gauge Number C>

Fig. 6. Circumferential strains from three XAS cylinders. 14 mm thick

greater than the observed collapse pressures. The predicted buckling pressures and associated mode shapes, with alternative boundary conditions, are summarised in Table 1. In all cases, the buckling pressures for n=2 and n=3 mode shapes were within a few percent of each other. A parametric studyI revealed that, for this specimen type, the in-plane material properties were the most influential regarding buckling, i.e. E,, E. and vze in cylindrical coordinates. A 20% change in one of these properties could alter the predicted buckling pressure by anything from about 10% to almost 35% and it is just about conceivable that combined effects could lead to errors of the magnitude observed. However, the in-plane properties could be deduced, at least approximately, from the strain data from the end load and hydrostatic tests and were found to agree reasonably well with

Composite pressure hulls

Table 1. Predicted buckling pressures (MPa) Element Shell Brick type Clamped ends Simply supported ends 229.6 (n = 2) 188-7 (n=2)

339

242.5 (n=3) 197.4 (n =2)

nesses where the dominant mode of failure changes from elastic buckling to material failure and it is clear from the current data that, for this particular material and specimen type, it lies somewhere between 8 mm and 20 mm. Tenax f55 cylinders and rings

the manufacturers data. It was certainly felt that the errors were extremely unlikely to be large enough to explain the observed discrepancy and some thinner walled specimens, which were designed to buckle elastically, were supplied. One cylinder of nominally 6 mm thick and three of nominally 8 mm thick were tested and all buckled with an n = 3 mode shape. The 6 mm thick cylinder was loaded until it had clearly begun to buckle and then unloaded. This was repeated three times with the onset of buckling observed at about 29 MPa each time before the cylinder was loaded to collapse at about 31 MPa. The 8 mm thick cylinders all failed at around 56 MPa with very little scatter. Using the manufacturers laminate properties with the measured in-plane properties, see Ref. 12, the shell element FE model predicted collapse in an n=3 mode at pressures within 3% of the observed collapse pressures. The n =3 buckling curve is shown in Fig. 5 along with the experimental data. This excellent agreement gave confidence in the material properties data and FE idealisation but did not help to explain the observed discrepancies in the results from the 14 mm thick cylinders. The three cylinders of nominally 20 mm wall thickness failed at just over 100 MPa, again with very little scatter, and with no indication of overall buckling. Graham & Anderson2 applied a crude material failure analysis to the thicker cylinders based on the Azzi-Tsai criterion, eqn (8). S 1 and S2 were taken to be equal and assumed to apply to the laminate rather than individual laminae, S 12 was taken to be zero. The overall failure stress for the laminate was estimated to be about 450 MPa. This is not particularly rigorous and loses relevance as the cylinder thickness increases and the state of stress becomes triaxial. However it may be useful to provide a first estimate of failure pressure and is plotted against the experimental data in Fig. 5. The reason for the scatter in the data from the 14 mm thick cylinders is not known but has been discussed at some length in Ref. 12. There will be a transition range of thick-

To date, three 20 mm thick, 125 mm internal diameter, cylinders of this material have been tested, collapsing just below 100 MPa, slightly lower than the equivalent XAS cylinders. These experimental data are also included in Fig. 5. A number of 20 mm thick, 125 mm internal diameter, ring specimens have been tested using the method described by King & Bird.14 This test operates on the assumption that a state of plane stress exists in the specimen, i.e. no axial load is introduced, and this was verified for a variety of aluminium specimens. Under these conditions it would be possible to measure circumferential modulus and strength as well as in-plane Poissons ratio of a composite specimen from a single test. However consideration of experimental data by Graham showed that a significant amount of axial loading was introduced to 3 (76.2 mm) long composite specimens. This means that the ring test, as such, cannot be used to measure circumferential modulus and strength directly but can still provide useful data relating failure if appropriate strain measurements are made and elastic properties are determined elsewhere, e.g. from lamina data. Ferguson et ~1.~ have characterised the material properties for this particular material in some detail giving lamina in-plane and through thickness stiffnesses and strengths, in both tension and compression in most cases. This information was used in conjunction with experimental strain data and the analysis described earlier to test the failure criteria described by eqns (8)-(11) when applied to hydrostatic and ring tests. Unfortunately Ferguson ef aZ.9 do not report a value for the compressive strength of the lamina in the fibre direction. In the first instance this was assumed to be equal to the tensile strength in this direction, in common with many quoted strength data for unidirectional CFRP composites. Figure 7 shows the values of each criterion, through the thickness, at the collapse pressure. Bearing in mind that a value of unity predicts failure, it is apparent that some rather unreli-

340 1 0 -1 -2 -3 -4 -5 -6 62.5 67.5 4&zi-Tsai

D. Graham

72.5

82.5 4Tsa.i.Wu(2)

radius (mm)
+Tsai-Hill 4Tsai-Wu(1) (a) 25

62.5

67.5 4AzzLTsai +Tsai-Hill

72.5 4Ts&Wu(l)

77.5 4Ts&Wu(2)

82.5

Fig. 7.

(b) Values of failure criteria at collapse pressure: (a) hydrostatic test; (b) ring test.

able predictons are achieved. The calculations were repeated with reduced values of the compressive strength in the fibre direction but this was found to make little difference, even when reduced by a factor of two. In the case of the hydrostatic test the Tsai-Wu criterion, eqns (10) and (ll), gives meaningless negative values. This appears to be because the solution is dominated by F2 and F3 which turn out to be relatively large and negative because of large differences between the transverse, and through thickness, strengths in tension and compression. This perhaps highlights the conceptual difficulty of using vastly different compressive and tensile strengths to predict failure in an entirely compressive stress field. The three dimensional formulation on the Tsai-Wu criterion, which is dominated by F3, also gives some negative values in the case of the ring test. Although the

ring test introduces some axial load to this type it is very much less than in the of specimen, hydrostatic test and this allows tensile transverse stresses to develop in the inner laminae. This is the cause of the step observed in the Tsai-Hill prediction in Fig. 7(b). Although using measured tensile and compressive strengths when appropriate may be physically more realistic, the high values observed do not instill a great deal of confidence in this particular prediction. Figure 8 shows some of the data contained in Fig. 7 with the more extreme predictions removed. Although there is some reasonable correlation in the case of the ring test the best predictions are still out by a factor of 2. As was mentioned in the previous paragraph, these quadratic failure criteria appeared to be relatively insensitive to the material strength in

Composite pressure hulls

341

62.5

67.5

72.5 m%us (mm) IMzzi-Tsai +Tsai-Hill

77.5

82.5

2.5

0 62.5

67.5

72.5 radius (mm)

77.5

82.5

/+&,&Tsai

+Tsai-Hill

+Tsai-Wu(1)

(b)
Fig. 8. Selected values of failure criteria at collapse pressure: (a) hydrostatic test; (b) ring test.

the fibre direction. This was becaue the stresses in the fibre direction, although up to a factor of ten times greater than the other stresses (e.g. transverse and through thickness), were still a fraction of this strengh and thus terms involving strength in the fibre direction tended to have little contribution towards failure. Solving for the unknown compressive strength in the fibre direction, assuming all other values were accurate, gave unlikely values ranging from about 60 MPa to 300 MPa. These criteria are much more sensitive to the transverse and through thickness strengths. Because they are much lower than the strength in the fibre direction it is possible for relatively low levels of transverse and through thickness stress to dominate the solution and, as observed above, large differences between compressive and tensile strengths can

lead to odd results in some formulations. The strength data used in these calculations are considered to be very reliable although the test specimens used to obtain them varied geometrically from the +55 fibre wound cylinders considered here. This may have had some effect on the measured properties. While inaccurate strength data will obviously affect the accuracy of failure predictions, it does not really explain the wildly diverging results from alternative criteria. The analysis has assumed linear behaviour using initial values of Youngs and shear moduli and Poissons ratios. Ferguson et al.9 show that the material exhibits non-linearities in compression and is particularly non-linear in shear. These effects will inevitably influence the solution and it is intended to include them in the

342

D. Graham following expression relating the relative thicknesses of cylinder and dome.
tCFRP -=
tTi

analysis in the future. Thermal residual stresses are another factor which will influence predicted failure and these were modelled crudely using a uniform step change in temperature. This is not a particularly accurate representation of reality, especially in thick section components where the temperature is likely to vary through the thickness at any given time during a cure cycle. This is a complex area and deserves further attention, particularly since residual stresses can be used to advantage in some cases. The criteria of Hashin, which allow for different modes of failure, have so far been considered only briefly, but with encouraging results. In the few cases investigated the results were at least as good as the best of the quadratic criteria. More recently Hart-Smith,16 who is very critical of the quadratic criteria, has developed a relatively simple prediction for laminates consisting of 0, 90 and +45 layers, which also allows that failure can occur by different modes. This type of approach is physically more realistic and is perhaps most likely to produce a reliable, general design tool.

2ETi [L]
(l-v,) EO 2E.7 CFRP

(12)

ENDCLOSURES Shallow diving submarine pressure hulls are limited by failure due to buckling and typically consist of ring stiffened cylindrical, and sometimes conical, sections with hemispherical or torispherical end closures. The collapse pressure of the end domes is very sensitive to shape imperfections, see Graham et a1.,17 and design is normally conservative. As a consequence the domes are normally much stiffer than the cylindrical sections which leads to high local bending stresses near the connection. The buckling pressure of a cylinder is proportional to (t/r)3 and that of a sphere to (t/r)2 while the material failure pressure is proportional to t/r, where t is the thickness and Ythe radius. Because of this, a pressure hull designed for depths up to 6000 m will be strength limited and the optimum design will be a monocoque construction. An interesting possibility is to design a cylindrical hull and end dome to be of equal radial stiffness and thus eliminate increased stresses due to local bending. This has been considered for a CFRP cylinder and titanium dome by Graham & Anderson and Graham. A membrane analysis equating circumferential strains gives the

Finite element analysis of dome/cylinder combinations determined by eqn (12) showed that bending stresses could indeed be virtually eliminated although care would have to be exercised in the design of the connection to prevent local concentration, particularly of shear stress, in the composite material. However, suitable titanium domes proved to be of somewhat non-conservative design and it is possible that domes of composite material may be more versatile in designing stiffness matched components. Two small scale CFRP domes, t=12 mm and r=125 mm, of quasi-isotropic construction are to be tested as part of the MAST II programme and FE models have recently been developed. Thick shell and three-dimensional brick models gave buckling pressures of 184 MPa and 181 MPa respectively in an y1=5 mode as shown in Fig. 9, far in excess of the expected collapse pressure due to material failure. Composite domes present other problems however, for example it is difficult to maintain constant thickness over a complete hemisphere and a significant increase has been found to occur towards the edges of the MAST II specimens. This will have to be included in future analyses but an efficient deep diving pressure hull which develops only membrane stresses is a worthwhile goal.

CONCLUDING

REMARKS

This paper describes a Lame type analysis for a thick, overall orthotropic cylinder which can be constructed of anisotropic layers. Loading consists of external pressure, a uniform axial strain and a uniform temperature difference. Displacement, stress and strain predictions have been found to be in excellent agreement with finite element analyses. FE analysis has also shown that the stresses predicted by analytical solution are close to those developed in the test section of the cylindrical specimens used in the current experimental programme. The analytical solution was used in conjunction with some of the popular failure theories but predictions of failure pressures were found to be greatly

Composite pressure hulls

343

Most of the analytical work tributions. described in this paper was supported by the MOD under ongoing strategic research. Some early experimental work was carried out in connection with the NERC Autosub project. The major part of the experimental programme and some of the FE cylinder analysis was funded under the EC MAST II programme (Contract No. MAS2-CT92-0028). REFERENCES
1. Smith, C. S., Design of submersible pressure hulls in composite materials. Marine Struct., 4 (1991) 141-82. 2. Stachiw, J. D. & Frame, B., Graphite-fibre-reinforced plastic pressure hull mod 2 for the advanced unmanned search system vehicle. NOSC San Diego, Technical Report 1245, 1988. 3. Graham, D. & Anderson, N., Unpublished DRA report. 4. Tzeng, J. T. CyrChien, L. S., A thermal/mechanical model of axially loaded thick-walled composite cylinders. Comp. Engng, 4 (1994) 219-32. 5. Atkins, ASAS-NL User Manual, Version 18, 1990. 6. Ochoa, 0. 0. & Reddy, J. N., Finite Element Analysis of Composite Laminates. Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1992. 7. Tsai, S. W. & Wu, E. M., A general theory of strength for anisotropic materials. J. Comp. Mat., 5 (1971) 58. fibre 8. Hashin, Z., Failure criteria for unidirectional composites. J. Appl. Mech., 47 (1980) 329. 9. Ferguson, R., Thompson, R. & Hinton, M., Experimental measurements of the longitudinal, transverse and through-thickness properties of the tenax UT carbon fibre/MY 750 epoxy resin composite system. Unpublished DRA report. 10. Smith, C. S., Smart, C., Murphy, P. & Creswell, D. J., Design of composite pressure hulls for AUTOSUB vehicles. ARE TM(UHS) 90224, 1990, Unclassified. 11. Elliot, D. M., Carbon fibre cylinders for AUTOSUB project mechanical property offcuts - preliminary data. Unpublished DRA report. N., FE analysis of thick 12. Graham, D. & Anderson, section composite cylinders. Unpublished DRA report. 13. Cooper, N., DRA Fort Halstead. Private communication, May 1993. 14. King, G. & Bird, J., The use of short cylinders to determine compressive failure pressures. Unpublished DRA report. of ring and cylinder test 15. Graham, D., Assessment data. Unpublished DRA report. 16. Hart-Smith, L. J., A scientific approach to composite laminate strength prediction. Paper DP8467, Douglas Aircraft Company, April 1990. 17. Graham, D., Keron, I., Mitchell, G. & Creswell, D., DRA structural research on submarines and submersibles. Marine Struct., 7 (1994) 231-56. 18. Graham, D. & Anderson, N., Analysis of two potential end closure designs for the pressure hull of the AUTOSUB project demonstrator test vehicle. Unpublished DRA report. 19. Graham, D., MAST II half scale pressure hull analysis of dome/cylinder connection and interaction. Unpublished DRA report.

Fig. 9.

Buckling mode shapes of dome predicted shell and brick FE models.

by both

variable and, in many cases, differed greatly from observed collapse pressures. There are many refinements which can be made to the analysis, such as allowing for non linear elastic behaviour and residual stresses and failure criteria which account for different modes of failure may be more appropriate. The finite element method has been used to accurately predict the elastic buckling pressure of the thinner cylinders but at present the only reliable method of predicting the collapse of thick composite cylinders due to material failure appears to be by using empirical data.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author would like to thank his colleagues at DRA Fort Halstead who provided specimens, materials data and a wealth of background information, DRA Dunfermline who carried out the experimental programme and provided the data and also the partners in the MAST II programme at NERC Institute of Oceanographic Sciences, IFREMER and the National Technical University of Athens for their con-