Surface crack growth in rigid pipe reinforced with FRP
Surface cracks frequently appear in rigid pipes caused by dynamic loads or hydrogen embrittlement, etc. Under dynamic fatigue loads, surface cracks have a huge possibility to propagate into penetrated cracks, which will cause leakage and even serious accidents. In my research, Fiber-Reinforced-Polymer is adopted to reinforce surface crack, in order to decrease/stop surface crack growth in rigid pipes under bending moment.
This PhD research aims to understand the mechanism of surface crack growth in rigid pipes reinforced with FRP, which mainly contains 3-D numerical simulation, experimental validation, sensitivity analysis and optimization design of FRP reinforcement method. Through the above approaches, this research will help develop/improve the associated CRS standards.
Fig.1 Surface crack in rigid pipe reinforced with FRP
Fig.2 Numerical model of rigid pipe reinforced with FRP