Study of Composite Fiber Reinforcement of Cracked Thin-Walled Pressure Vessels Utilizing Multi-Scaling Technique Based on Extended Finite Element Method

One of the most important challenges of storing fluids in thin walled pressure vessels under internal pressure is preventing crack propagation. At low temperatures, steel shows brittle crack propagation characteristic, which is highly dangerous. In this paper, a new numerical model is presented, in order to investigate the reinforcement of a cracked thin walled pressure vessel by composite patch. The extended finite element method (XFEM) technique is used to model brittle crack propagation through the thickness of a thin-walled pressure vessel utilizing the multi-scaling technique. Crack propagation in the thickness of a pressure vessel was studied utilizing the combination of XFEM approach in fracture mechanics and multi-scaling technique. Then, the critical energy, which is the maximum strain energy that the pressure vessel can absorb before the brittle crack starts to propagate, was calculated using the numerical techniques of XFEM. In order to increase the critical energy, cohesive elements and composite patches with different stacking sequence, which were extracted from previous experimental and analytical studies, were used, and the best stacking sequence was identified using the current XFEM code. Moreover, the optimization was carried out using the traditional optimization technique for reinforcing with composite patches, which was based on the optimum ratio of the increased critical energy to the thickness of the reinforcement. Results obtained show that, keeping constant the reinforcing thickness and changing the stacking angle, the maximum energy capacity is increased by 7–11%. Also, by increasing the thickness of the reinforcement, a significant growth in strain energy capacity (up to 40%) is observed. The Hashin damage criterion was used to ensure that none of the laminas’ damage during the crack propagation is critical.