• Composites Research
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.23-30
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• 2008

In this paper, the effect of the natural aging on the strength distribution and structural service life of a Filament Wound (FW) composite pressure vessel was studied. The fiber failure strain, which is varied significantly, was considered as the design random variable and the strength analysis was carried out by probabilistic numerical approach. The progressive failure analysis technique and the First Order Reliability Method (FORM) were embedded in this numerical model. As the calculation results, the probability of failure was obtained for each aging time steps and it is found that the strength degradation in FW composite pressure vessel, due to the natural aging, appears within 10 year-aging-time. As an example of the life prediction under natural aging using arbitrary laminated model, the service lifetime of 13 years was predicted based on the probability of failure of 2.5% and the design pressure of 3,250 psi.