Session: 03-06-01 Composite Material Design and Modelling

Submission Number: 181161

Elasto Plastic Response of Thermoplastic Composite Pipes 

Thermoplastic composite pipes (TCPs) have shown great potential for deep-sea oil and gas applications owing to their moderate bending stiffness, light weight, corrosion resistance, and spoolable installation capability. The reinforcement layer of TCPs is typically composed of fibre-reinforced composites, which exhibit limited plasticity along the fibre direction but pronounced yielding in the transverse and shear directions, resulting in strongly anisotropic plastic behaviour. This direction-dependent plasticity plays a critical role in governing the overall nonlinear response of the pipe. Therefore, a comprehensive understanding of the nonlinear mechanical behaviour of TCPs is essential to ensure structural performance and design reliability.

In this study, the orthotropic elasto-plastic behaviour of TCPs is investigated using material parameters provided by collaborative micromechanical analyses. An orthotropic elasto-plastic constitutive model is implemented through a user-defined material subroutine (UMAT) within the Abaqus finite element environment. The developed model is capable of accurately describing the nonlinear response characteristics of fibre-reinforced thermoplastic laminates under complex loading conditions.

The simulation results show good agreement with experimental observations, confirming the reliability and predictive capability of the model under different loading conditions. This work provides an effective numerical modelling framework for the structural design, performance evaluation, and safety assessment of thermoplastic composite pipes.

 

Keywords: Thermoplastic Composite Pipe, Orthotropic Plasticity, Elasto-Plastic Modelling, Nonlinear Response, Finite Element Analysis

Presenting Author: Yaohua Fan Ocean Engineering Program, COPPE, Federal University of Rio De Janeiro

Presenting Author Biography: Works on the mechanical modelling and numerical analysis of thermoplastic composite pipes, focusing on orthotropic elasto-plastic constitutive modelling and finite element simulation.

Authors:

Yaohua Fan Ocean Engineering Program, COPPE, Federal University of Rio De Janeiro
Murilo Augusto Vaz Ocean Engineering Program, COPPE, Federal University of Rio De Janeiro
Marcelo Caire Ocean Engineering Program, COPPE, Federal University of Rio De Janeiro
Yuhao Meng Ocean Engineering Program, COPPE, Federal University of Rio De Janeiro