About the project
This project will investigate fatigue behaviour of thermoplastic composites and the role of matrix cracking in the materials’ residual stiffness and strength.
Flexible thermoplastic subsea pipes are new products which are replacing steel pipes with the main advantage of requiring significantly less infrastructure for installation and ease of deployment. These pipes are typically manufactured by polymers, layered polymers and fibre reinforced polymers to give them the flexibility and chemical resistance they need in seawater.
This project aims to investigate the fatigue response of these materials. The study will focus on characterising the material’s behaviour under cyclic loading. We aim to perform a fundamental study to understand the mechanisms involved in the fatigue failure of these materials. The project will investigate fatigue behaviour of thermoplastic composites and the role of matrix cracking in the materials’ residual stiffness and strength. Its specific objectives are to:
- develop procedure to manufacture high quality thermoplastic composite panels in house
- experimentally characterise fatigue behaviour of Thermoplastic composite revealing ‘in situ’ matrix cracking phenomenon and its role in fatigue performance
- explore computationally efficient modelling methods to predict thermoplastic composite component residual strength capacity post fatigue
