Composite Structures 93 (2011) 2844–2852

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Composite Structures
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compstruct

Reliability-based load and resistance factor design of composite pressure vessel

under external hydrostatic pressure
Baoping Cai, Yonghong Liu ⇑, Zengkai Liu, Xiaojie Tian, Renjie Ji, Hang Li
College of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, China University of Petroleum, Dongying, Shandong 257061, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A reliability-based load and resistance factor design procedure for subsea composite pressure vessel
Available online 25 May 2011 subjected to external hydrostatic pressure is presented. The failure criterion for defining the performance
function is considered as buckling. A sensitivity analysis is conducted to research influences of statistical
Keywords: characteristics of variables on the partial safety factors and the thickness of pressure vessel. The results
Load and resistance factor design shows the longitudinal modulus, inside radius of composite layers, unsupported length and external
Filament winding pressure significantly affect the design results, whereas transversal modulus, Poisson’s ratio, shear
Composite pressure vessel
modulus and winding angle have little effects. In order to validate the design results, a filament-wound
Buckling
External hydrostatic pressure
composite pressure vessel is manufactured, and the buckling test is performed. It is observed that when
the applied external hydrostatic pressure is a little more than the designed critical buckling pressure, the
buckling and subsequent burst behaviours occur, which shows a good agreement between the
experimental and analytical results.
Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction of composite cylinders under external hydrostatic pressure using

Subsea blowout preventers play an extremely important role in
providing safe working conditions for drilling activities in ultra-
deep water regions. Two sets of redundant electronic equipments
and control systems are placed in two separate pressure vessels
of control pods, which are normally located on the lower marine
riser package on the seafloor [1]. The pressure vessels are filled
with 1-atmosphere dry nitrogen, and protect the electronic equip-
ments from external hydrostatic pressure. These vessels are typi-
cally constructed of high strength steels, titanium and aluminium
alloy, which have large weight and low resistance to seawater.
Recently, composite materials are being used in underwater vehi-
cles and ocean structures due to their light weight and high resis-
tance to seawater [2–4]. These structures are mainly fabricated by
the filament winding process. The current composite pressure ves-
sel is designed according to Section X of the American Society of
Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Boiler and Pressure Vessel (B&PV)
Code [5]. The maximum allowable external pressure for a specific
thickness of composite cylinder is calculated using a deterministic
method, in which the global safety factors are prescribed
deterministically.
For the subsea composite pressure vessel, hydrostatic pressure-
induced buckling tends to dominate structural performance.
Hur et al. [6–9] studied the buckling and postbuckling behaviours
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 0546 8392303; fax: +86 0546 8393620.
E-mail address: liuyhupc@126.com (Y. Liu).
finite element method and experimental method. It was identified
that the results of finite element analysis and the hydrostatic test
indicated good matches. Hernandez-Moreno et al. [10] studied
the influence of winding pattern on the mechanical behaviour of
filament wound composite cylinders under external pressure.
The buckling analysis is based on the classical laminate theory,
and five different buckling models are used to calculate the buck-
ling modes and buckling pressure. The results show that there is no
strong influence of the two chosen winding pattern on the
implosion pressure of the composite cylinders. Smerdov [11]
investigated different formulations of optimization problems for
multi-layered composite cylindrical shells under external pressure
in terms of buckling. Rasheed et al. [12–14] developed the general-
ized closed-form analytical formula for orthotropic and anisotropic
laminated rings and long cylinders subjected to external hydro-
static pressure. Comparisons of analytical and numerical results
show excellent agreement for the rings and cylinders. Messager
et al. [15,16] studied the buckling of imperfect laminated cylinders
under hydrostatic pressure, and presented a genetic algorithm pro-
cedure coupled with an analytical model to determine numerically
optimized stacking sequences.
Compared with the deterministic design method, the probabi-
listic design method provides more accurate failure probabilities
and avoids costly over-design and conservative manufacturing
for composite vessels. In recent years, various reliability-based
methods have been used to design and optimize the composite cyl-
inder. Boyer et al. [17,18] design a composite structure to achieve a

0263-8223/$ - see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.compstruct.2011.05.020
 B. Cai et al. / Composite Structures 93 (2011) 2844–2852 2845

specified reliability level, and optimize the winding angle of cylin- vessel. In this study, the analytical buckling model is developed
drical laminated composite by using reliability methods. Biagi and based on the classical laminate theory.
Medico [19] studied the reliability-based knockdown factors for Due to the filament winding fabrication process, half of the fi-
composite cylinder with different stacking sequences. Lene et al. bres show +a orientation and the other half show a orientation
[20] studied the composite stiffened cylinder by using reliability- with respect to the cylinder axis. The off-axis stiffness matrix of
based response surface technique. Liu and Zheng [21] proposed a each composite layer can be expressed in term of the on-axis stiff-
static strength-base reliability model to predict the reliability of ness matrix as follows:
aluminium–carbon fibre/epoxy composite laminates for composite 2 32 3
Q 11 m4 n4 2m2 n2 4m2 n2
vessels.
6 Q 76 n4 m4 2m2 n2 72 Q 3
4m2 n2
Reliability-based load and resistance factor design (LRFD) meth- 6 22 76 7 xx
6 76 76
od has been widely used to design engineering structures due to 6 Q 12 76 m2 n2 m2 n2 m4 þ n4 76 Q yy 7
4m2 n2 7
6 76 76 7 ð1Þ
6 Q 76 m2 n2 ðm2  n2 Þ2 7
that the method can provide risk consistency, is likely to result 6 66 76 m2 n2 2m2 n2 74 Q xy 5
in more economical use of materials, and permits future modifica- 6 76 7
4 Q 16 54 m3 n mn3 mn3  m3 n 2ðmn3  m3 nÞ 5 Q ss
tion [22]. The method is also incorporated into the codes of
Q 26 mn3 m3 n m3 n  mn3 2ðm3 n  mn3 Þ
American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) [23], American
Association of State Highways and Transport Officials (AASHTO) where m = cos a, n = sin a, Qij (ij = 1, 2, 6) are the off-axis stiffness
[24], American Petroleum Institute (API) [25], and so on. However, coefficients and Qij (ij = x, y, s) are the on-axis stiffness coefficients.
LRFD-based design procedures and intensive investigation of com- The relationship of on-axis stiffness coefficients and mechanical
posite pressure vessel subjected to external hydrostatic pressure properties of unidirectional layer can be written as
have never been reported so far.
This work aims to develop the LRFD-based composite pressure Q xx ¼ EL =ð1  mLT mTL Þ ð2Þ
vessel design procedure for subsea blowout preventers subjected
to external hydrostatic pressure. The performance function is pre- Q yy ¼ ET =ð1  mLT mTL Þ ð3Þ
sented, and the LRFD-based code is calibrated. The partial safety
factors are calculated, and their sensitivities to the statistical char- Q xy ¼ EL mTL =ð1  mLT mTL Þ ð4Þ
acteristics of variables are investigated. The validity of the design
results is confirmed by performing an external hydrostatic pres- Q ss ¼ GLT ð5Þ
sure test on a prototype composite pressure vessel.
mLT ¼ EL mTL =ET ð6Þ
2. Load and resistance factor design for composite pressure where EL and ET are the longitudinal and transversal elastic modu-
vessel lus, respectively; mLT and mTL are the longitudinal and transversal
Poisson’s ratios, respectively; and GLT is the shear modulus.
The composite pressure vessel is a cylinder with closed ends According to the classical laminate theory, the shell constitutive
subjected to an external pressure p. The dimension of the pressure relation can be obtained:
2 3 2 32
vessel is shown in Fig. 1. The aluminium liner, which provides the
Nx A11 A12 A16 B11 B12 B16 ex 3
sealing and corrosion resistance in seawater, is overwrapped by a
6 N 7 6A B26 7 6 7
composite manufactured by filament winding. The vessel is made 6 h 7 6 21 A22 A26 B21 B22 76 eh 7
6 7 6 76 7
of ±a winding pattern of carbon fibres impregnated with epoxy 6 Nxh 7 6 A61 A62 A66 B61 B62 B66 76 cxh 7
6 7 6 76 7
resin. 6 M 7 ¼ 6B B12 B16 D11 D12 D16 7 6 7 ð7Þ
6 x 7 6 11 76 kx 7
6 7 6 76 7
4 Mh 5 4 B21 B22 B26 D21 D22 D26 54 kh 5
2.1. Theoretical analysis
M xh B61 B62 B66 D61 D62 D66 kxh
Previous researches have shown numerically and experimen- where Nx, Nh and Nxh are the axial, hoop, and in-plane shearing
tally that composite pressure vessels under external hydrostatic forces, respectively; Mx and Mh are the bending moments; and
pressure are subjected to buckling phenomenon [15]. Thus, the Mxh is the twisting moment. Aij, Bij, Dij are the classical laminate
limit of stability is the major design criteria of subsea pressure stiffness coefficients of membrane, coupling and bending, respec-
tively. They can be obtained using Eqs. (8)–(10).
X
K
Aij ¼ Q ij t k ð8Þ
k¼1

1X K
Bij ¼ Q ðz2  z2k1 Þ ð9Þ
2 k¼1 ij k

1X K
Dij ¼ Q ðz3  z3k1 Þ ð10Þ
3 k¼1 ij k

where K is the number of different layers in the stacking sequence,

Fig. 1. Geometry of composite pressure vessel including aluminium liner, steel
flange and filament-wound composite layers.
tk is the thickness of kth layer, and zk is the through thickness posi-
tion of kth layer.
For the composite pressure vessel studied in this work, each
composite layer is assumed to be orthotropic. The buckling behav-
iour is researched by Donnell kinematics and classical laminate
theory [32,33]. Some basic assumptions are made, such as (a)
interlaminar or transverse shear is not addressed; (b) laminate
2846 B. Cai et al. / Composite Structures 93 (2011) 2844–2852

stress resultants and moment resultants are taken as averages of C 32 ¼ C 23 ð20Þ

ply stresses across the thickness of the laminate; (c) ply stress is
where Aij, Bij, Dij (ij = 1, 2, 6) are the classical laminate stiffness coef-
based on homogeneity within each ply where the fibre and matrix
ficients of membrane, coupling and bending mentioned above.
are not recognized as distinct phases; and (d) the laminate is as-
In critical buckling external pressure expression of Eq. (11),
sumed to consist of perfectly bonded lamina [5]. In the case of
there are seven variables including longitudinal modulus EL, trans-
orthotropic shells subject to external pressure, the buckling pres-
versal modulus ET, shear modulus GLT, Poisson’s ratio mLT, inside ra-
sure may be evaluated by means of the following expression where
dius of composite layers r, winding angle a, unsupported length l
the components of the stiffness matrix of the laminate are intro-
and thickness t, and two integers M and N. Therefore, critical buck-
duced [5,26,27]. It is obtained for the variations of stresses during
ling external pressure can be rewritten as
buckling in the kth layer of a multilayered shell in terms of the
variations of strains during buckling. Subsequently, the variations pcr ¼ f ðEL ; ET ; GLT ; mLT ; r; a; l; t; M; NÞ ð21Þ
of stresses are integrated over the shell and stiffeners in order to
obtain expressions for the variations in forces and moments during
2.2. Target reliability levels
buckling. Finally, the variations in forces and moments are substi-
tuted in Donnell-type stability differential equations which are
A target reliability level is required in order to establish LRFD-
then solved to yield a closed-form stability criterion in terms of
based composite pressure vessel design code. It determines the
the geometric and material properties of the multilayered circular
probability of failure of the vessel subjected to external pressure.
cylindrical shell [32]. The classical laminate theory ABD matrix de-
The approximation of the failure probability is given by:
scribed above is used to solve critical buckling external pressure.
2 3 Pf ¼ UðbÞ ð22Þ
C 11 C 12 C 13
6 7 where U is the cumulative density function of the standard normal
det 4 C 21 C 22 C 23 5
distribution. Pf is the probability of failure. b is the reliability index
Rþt C 31 C 32 C 33 ð11Þ
pcr ¼ h i2   or safety index, which is defined as the shortest distance from the
2 1 M pðRþtÞ C 11 C 12
N þ 2 l det origin to the failure surface at the most probable failure point of
C 21 C 22 performance function curve, when the load and resistance are
expressed in reduced coordinate space [28].
where R is the inner radius of the composite layers (outer radius of
The reliability index b and the corresponding probability of fail-
the aluminium liner), l is the unsupported length, t is the thickness
ure Pf are evaluated using Eq. (22), shown in Table 1. It can be seen
of the composite layers. M is the number of half weaves in the axial
that as the reliability index becomes bigger, the probability of fail-
direction, and N is the number of weaves in the circumferential
ure decreases rapidly. When b = 0.2, the probability of failure is
direction. They are integers varied to obtain the combination that
42.07%, which means that the buckling behaviour of composite
gives the lowest buckling external pressure. Cij (ij = 1, 2, 3) are used
pressure vessel highly likely occurs. In this study, the design exter-
to expressed the buckling modes of the composite pressure vessel,
nal pressure p is considered to be equal to the critical buckling
and they can written as
external pressure pcr when b = 0.2. For engineering application,
 2  2 the target reliability level implied in currently used design codes
Mp N
C 11 ¼ A11 þ A66 ð12Þ is usually selected. In this study, the value of b = 4.2 is adopted
l Rþt to design the composite pressure vessel based on the engineering
 2  2 judgment. That means, the design external pressure p is exactly
N Mp the maximum allowable external pressure pa when b = 4.2. In order
C 22 ¼ A22 þ A66 ð13Þ
Rþt l to do the sensitivity analysis, the six values of reliability index
shown in Table 1 are used to calculate the partial safety factors.
 4  2  2
Mp Mp N
C 33 ¼ D11 þ 2ðD12 þ 2D66 Þ
l l Rþt 2.3. Performance functions and limit states
 4  2
N A22 2B22 N
þ D22 þ þ To develop LRFD-based pressure vessel design procedure, the
Rþt ðR þ tÞ2 R þ t R þ t performance function which corresponds to limit state for buckling
 2
2B12 Mp mode should be defined. In general, a mathematical expression of
þ ð14Þ the performance function for a structure is given by
Rþt l
   3 g ¼RL ð23Þ
A12 Mp Mp
C 13 ¼ þ B11 where g is the performance function, R is the resistance or strength,
Rþt l l
   2 and L is the load of the structure. The function g is a limit state func-
Mp N N tion which describes the failure criterion. When g > 0, the structure
þ ðB12 þ 2B66 Þ ð15Þ
l Rþt Rþt survives; and when g < 0, the structure fails.
Because composite material is anisotropic, the strengths of the
C 31 ¼ C 13 ð16Þ material are difficult to write as functions of variables such as pres-
   sure, winding angle or radius. In this study, the resistance and load
Mp N are replaced by the critical buckling external pressure pcr and the
C 12 ¼ ðA12 þ A66 Þ ð17Þ
l Rþt design external pressure p. This is a minor modification from tradi-
tional LRFD implementation, but the computed results are exactly
C 21 ¼ C 12 ð18Þ the same. Therefore, the performance function can be written as

 2      3 g ¼ pcr  p ð24Þ
Mp N A22 N N
C 23 ¼ ðB12 þ 2B66 Þ þ þ B22 Substituting Eq. (21) into Eq. (24), it can be derived as follows:
l Rþt Rþt Rþt Rþt
ð19Þ g ¼ f ðEL ; ET ; GLT ; mLT ; r; a; l; t; M; NÞ  p ð25Þ
 B. Cai et al. / Composite Structures 93 (2011) 2844–2852 2847

Table 1
Relationship of reliability index and probability of failure.

b 0.2 1.2 2.2 3.3 4.2 5.2

Pf 4.207  101 1.151  101 1.390  102 6.871  104 1.335  105 9.96  108

Because the variability of load is different from that of resis- f ðcEL EL ; cET ET ; cG GLT ; cm mLT ; cr r; ca a; cl l; t; M; NÞ P cp p ð26Þ
tance, it makes sense to apply different partial safety factors to
these variables. The LRFD-based method markedly differs from where cEL, cET, cG, cm, cr, ca, cl and cp are the partial safety factors of
the WSD-based design method, which uses only one safety factor. longitudinal modulus, transversal modulus, shear modulus,
This allows for taking into consideration uncertainties in load and Poisson’s ratio, inside radius of composite layers, winding angle,
strength, and to scale their characteristic values accordingly in the unsupported length, and design external pressure, respectively.
design equation. Various factors are applied in performance func-
tion corresponding to each variable. The design equation for the 2.4. Statistical characteristics of random variables
composite pressure vessel can be written as
The statistical characteristics including mean, distribution type
Table 2 and coefficient of variation (COV) of the random variables are re-
Statistical characteristics of variables. quired for the calculation of partial safety factors. In general, the
statistical characteristics are achieved based on the extensive data
Variables Unit Means, l COV, C (%) Distribution types
collection and data analysis. However, in the absence of sufficient
EL GPa 90 10 Normal
and good quality data, professional expertise has to be employed.
ET GPa 7 6 Normal
GLT GPa 5 8 Normal In this study, the variables values estimated based on test, engi-
vLT – 0.33 8 Normal neering judgment and reference review [17,18,29,30] are used, as
r mm 45.75 5 Normal shown in Table 2.
a deg 65 2 Normal In addition to the mechanical property of the composite mate-
l mm 159 5 Normal
p MPa 12 5 Normal
rial used in the subsequent experiment, the design parameters
including inside radius, winding angle, unsupported length and

Fig. 2. Effects of COV of longitudinal modulus and reliability index on partial safety Fig. 3. Effects of COV of transversal modulus and reliability index on partial safety
factors. factors.
2848 B. Cai et al. / Composite Structures 93 (2011) 2844–2852
design external pressure are also treated as independent random
variables. All variables have normal distributions.
2.5. Calculation of partial safety factors
The advanced first-order second-moment method (AFOSM) is a
convenient tool to assess the reliability of composite structures
[31]. By using the method, for the given reliability index b shown
in Table 1, and the given mean value, COV and distribution type
of the variables shown in Table 2, the design thickness of the com-
posite layers and the partial safety factors can be calculated
according Eq. (27).
xi
cxi ¼ ð27Þ
lxi
where xi (EL, ET, GLT, vLT, r, a, l, p) is the value of the variables at the
design point; lxi is the mean value of the variables; and cxi is the
partial safety factor mentioned in Eq. (26).
3. Results and sensitivity analysis
In order to research the effect of statistical characteristics of
variables on the partial safety factors, computations are made for
combinations of the ranges of COV of variables and reliability in-
dex. Each of the COV is varied between ±50% of the values given
in Table 2. The results are shown in Figs. 2–10.
As shown in Fig. 2a, with the increasing COV of longitudinal
modulus CEL and reliability index b, the partial safety factor cEL
Fig. 4. Effects of COV of winding angle and reliability index on partial safety factors.
decreases. When the value of b is high, the value of cEL decreases
rapidly. The results show that CEL significantly influences cEL when
the reliability of the composite cylinder is high. As reliability index
b increases, cr, cl and cp increase. Only when the value of b is high,
cr, cl and cp increase with the increasing CEL obviously. The results
show that the partial safety factors cr, cl and cp are sensitive to the
value of CEL only when the reliability of the composite cylinder is
high.
The reliability index b and CEL have little effects on the partial
safety factors cET, cGLT, cm and ca, as shown in Fig. 2b. When the va-
lue of b is high, cET and cGLT increases lightly with the increasing
CEL, but cm and ca are almost changeless. The results show that
the four partial safety factors are insensitive to b and CEL.
From Fig. 3a, it can be seen that as the reliability index b in-
creases, the partial safety factors cr, cl and cp increase, and cEL de-
creases. The COV of transversal modulus CET almost has no effects
on the four partial safety factors. As shown in Fig. 3b, the variation
of COV (CET) just affects the corresponding partial safety factor
(cET); however, the effects are very small. These results show that
all of the eight partial safety factors are not sensitive to CET. Accord-
ing to the investigation, the COV of the other two material proper-
ties (CGLT, Cm) have similar effects as CET on the partial safety factors.
Similarly, from Figs. 4 and 5, it can be seen that the COV of
winding angle and external pressure, Ca and Cp, affects the corre-
sponding partial safety factors ca and cp, obviously. With the
increasing Ca and Cp, the partial safety factors ca and cp increase.
In addition, the COV of other dimensions (Cr, Cl) have similar effects
as Ca on the partial safety factors.
Fig. 5. Effects of COV of external pressure and reliability index on partial safety
factors.
 B. Cai et al. / Composite Structures 93 (2011) 2844–2852 2849

4.1. Specimen manufacturing

The liner and flange were made of AISI 2124 aluminium and
AISI 1045 steel, respectively, as shown in Fig. 7. The aluminium
liner was manufactured in Machinery Plant of China University
of Petroleum by using lathe turning, and its dimensions were con-
trolled strictly when it was tooling in order to validate the LRFD-
based composite pressure vessel design results. The thickness of
the aluminium liner is 0.75 mm, which corresponds to the critical
buckling pressure of 0.62 MPa. Compared with the critical buckling
pressure of composite layers of 12 MPa, the effect of aluminium
liner can be neglected. Three o-rings were applied in the flange
to maintain sealing at high pressure.
The prototype was manufactured by a filament winding process
using T700-12 K carbon fibre roving and E51 Bisphenol-A epoxy

Fig. 6. Effects of COV of variables and reliability index on thickness of composite

layers.
Fig. 7. Aluminium liner and steel flange.

When the COV is varied between ±50% of the given values, and
the reliability index is varied from 1.2 to 5.2, the thickness of cyl-
inder as a function of COV and reliability index is shown in Fig. 6.
As anticipated, with the increasing reliability index b, the thickness
increases. As shown in Fig. 6a, with the increasing COV of CEL, Cr, Cl,
and Cp, the thickness increases slightly. It can also be seen that each
COV affects the variation of thickness differently. The COV of CET,
CGLT, Cm and Ca almost have no effects on the thickness as shown
in Fig. 6b. In a word, the COV in order of influence degree to the
thickness of cylinder is CEL > Cr > Cl > Cp > CET  CGLT  Cm  Ca. It is
noted that the critical buckling pressure and design thickness is
strongly dependent on the winding angle. However, in this work,
the uncertainty of winding angle which arises from the geometric
imperfections during filament winding process is not so large;
therefore, the little change of winding angle causes its little effects
on the critical buckling pressure and design thickness.
In addition, due to that p = pcr and p = pa when b = 0.2 and 4.2,
respectively, it can be seen from Fig. 6 that the thickness of
3 mm corresponds to the critical buckling thickness, and the thick-
ness of 6.28 mm corresponds to the minimum allowable thickness
for engineering application, when the design external pressure is
12 MPa. The lowest buckling modes are always M = 1 and N = 2.

4. Experiment

In order to validate the LRFD-based composite pressure vessel

design result shown in Part 3, a prototype of vessel was manufac-
tured and tested with the external hydrostatic pressure. Fig. 8. Filament-wound composite pressure vessel.
2850 B. Cai et al. / Composite Structures 93 (2011) 2844–2852
Fig. 9. Hyperbaric testing facility (a) hyperbaric testing chamber and (b) monitor
station.
resin. The roving was impregnated with resin before wound, and
roving tension can be adjusted in order to control composite com-
Fig. 10. Pressure–time curve for external pressure test.
paction. The roving was wound around the aluminium liner con-
tinuously, till the design thickness was reached. The mechanical
properties of the impregnated carbon fibre are given in Table 2.
Sand blasting treatment was performed on the aluminium liner
first in order to clean the hard surface and improve the adhesion
of carbon fibres. The computer controlled helical filament winding
machine was used to manufacture the composite pressure vessel.
The two ends were over-wound to reduce stress level near the
supports and ensure that buckling occurred within the ‘‘test
section’’.
Most of the thin cylinders investigated are based on ±55° ortho-
tropic sequences. This choice is classical for thin tubes subjected to
internal pressure: due to the radio between the circumferential
and axial load components resulting from the loading, the ±55°
laminations maximize the static strength [16]. For the cylindrical
vessel subjected to external pressure, Messager et al. [16] found
that some optimized stacking sequence causes higher buckling
pressure than ±55°. Rasheed and Yousif [12] studied critical buck-
ling external pressure by assuming a fully orthotropic lamination
with winding angle of ±63°. Based on these references and
engineering judgment, the winding angle of the manufactured
vessel is set as ±65° (of course, some other winding angles are also
selectable). The final prototype vessel is shown in Fig. 8. The
thickness is 3.1 mm, which is 3.33% thicker than the design
thickness.
4.2. External hydrostatic pressure test
The external hydrostatic pressure test was carried out in a
hyperbaric testing chamber (see Fig. 9) in Rongsheng Machinery
Manufacture Co., Ltd., Huabei oilfield, Hebei, China. The testing
chamber can apply pressures up to 50 MPa, which is equal to the
pressure at a depth of 5000 m in seawater. A high pressure pump
was used to supply hydrostatic pressure. The manufactured com-
posite pressure vessel was submerged in water for testing. The ap-
plied external pressure was increased by 0.1 MPa step by step, and
in each step the pressure maintained 1 min, till buckling and sub-
sequent burst behaviours occurred.
 B. Cai et al. / Composite Structures 93 (2011) 2844–2852
Fig. 11. Experimental failure of composite pressure vessel.
4.3. Results and discussions
Fig. 10 is the experimental pressure–time curve, it was noted
that the filament-wound composite pressure vessel showed a
slight buckling behaviour starting at an external pressure of
12.9 MPa (the measured pressure dropped slightly), which is a lit-
tle higher than the anticipated critical buckling pressure of 12 MPa.
And when the applied external pressure was 13.1 MPa (the mea-
sured pressure dropped sharply), the burst behaviour occurred,
as shown in Fig. 11. This is because that aluminium liner might
bear a litter external pressure, which caused the experimental crit-
ical buckling pressure higher than the design pressure. The exper-
imental results show that the reliability-based load and resistance
factor design procedure is correct.
5. Conclusions
A LRFD-based design procedure for subsea composite pressure
vessel subjected to external hydrostatic pressure is presented.
The sensitivity of the partial safety factors to the changes in the
characterization of various random variables is studied. The exter-
nal hydrostatic pressure test is performed in order to validate the
LRFD-based design results.
(1) The LRFD-based design procedure provides explicit and con-
sistent reliability for composite pressure vessel, which could
lead less conservative design.
(2) The longitudinal modulus, inside radius of composite layers,
unsupported length and external pressure significantly
affect the design results, whereas transversal modulus, Pois-
son’s ratio, shear modulus and winding angle have little
effects.
(3) The experimental results show that the when the applied
external hydrostatic pressure is a little higher than the
designed critical buckling pressure, the buckling and subse-
quent burst behaviours occurs, which shows a good agree-
ment between the experimental and analytical results.
2851
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support of the
National High-Technology Research and Development Program of
China (No. 2007AA09A101), National Natural Science Foundation
of China (No. 50874115) and Innovation Foundation of Graduate
School of China University of Petroleum (No. Z10-07).
References
[1] Shaughnessy JM, Armagost WK, Herrmann RP, Cleaver MA. Problems of ultra-
deepwater drilling. In: Proceedings of the IADC/SPE Asia pacific drilling
technology conference (APDT), Amsterdam, Netherlands, 9–11 March 1999. p.
179–88.
[2] Ossc TJ, Lee TJ. Composite pressure hulls for autonomous underwater vehicles.
In: IEEE oceans conference record, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 29 September–4
October 2007. No. 4449124.
[3] Corona-Bittick KA, Baker E, Leon G, Hall J. Filament winding of the navy
composite storage module. SAMPE J 2001;37(1):52–6.
[4] Jackson D, Dixon M, Shepheard B, Kebadze E, Lummus J, Crews M, et al. Ultra-
deepwater carbon fibre composite pressure vessel development, dual element
buoyancy unit (DEBU). SAMPE J 2007;43(2):61–70.
[5] ASME. Fiber-reinforced plastic pressure vessels, ASME boiler and pressure
vessel code, section X. New York: American Society of Mechanical Engineers;
2010.
[6] Hur SH, Son HJ, Kweon JH, Choi JH. Postbuckling of composite cylinders under
external hydrostatic pressure. Compos Struct 2008;86:114–24.
[7] Moon CJ, Kim IH, Choi BH, Kweon JH, Choi JH. Buckling of filament-wound
composite cylinders subjected to hydrostatic pressure for underwater vehicle
applications. Compos Struct 2010;92:2241–51.
[8] Han JY, Jung HY, Cho JR, Choi JH, Bae WB. Buckling analysis and test of
composite shells under hydrostatic pressure. J Mater Process Technol
2008;201:742–5.
[9] Ross CTF, Little APF, Haidar Y, Waheeb AA. Buckling of carbon/glass composite
tubes under uniform external hydrostatic pressure. Strain 2009, in press.
doi:10.1111/j.1475-1305.2008.00475.x.
[10] Hernandez-Moreno H, Douchin B, Collombet F, Choqueuse D, Davies P.
Influence of winding pattern on the mechanical behavior of filament wound
composite cylinders under external pressure. Compos Sci Technol
2008;68:1015–24.
[11] Smerdov AA. A computational study in optimum formulations of optimization
problems on laminated cylindrical shells for buckling II. Shells under external
pressure. Compos Sci Technol 2000;60:2067–76.
[12] Rasheed HA, Yousif OH. Buckling of thin laminated orthotropic composite
rings/long cylinders under external pressure. Int J Struct Stab Dyn
2001;1(4):485–507.
[13] Rasheed HA, Yousif OH. Stability of anisotropic laminated rings and long
cylinders subjected to external hydrostatic pressure. J Aerospace Eng
2005;18(3):129–38.
[14] Kim D, Chaudhuri RA. Effect of thickness on buckling of perfect cross-ply rings
under external pressure. Compos Struct 2007;81:525–32.
[15] Messager T. Buckling of imperfect laminated cylinders under hydrostatic
pressure. Compos Struct 2001;53:301–7.
[16] Messager T, Pyrz M, Gineste B, Chauchot P. Optimal laminations of thin
underwater composite cylindrical vessels. Compos Struct 2002;58:529–37.
[17] Boyer C, Beakou A, Lemaire M. Design of a composite structure to achieve a
specified reliability level. Reliab Eng Syst Saf 1997;56:273–83.
[18] Beakou A, Mohamed A. Influence of variable scattering on the optimum
winding angle of cylindrical laminated composites. Compos Struct
2001;53:287–93.
[19] Biagi M, Medico FD. Reliability-based knockdown factors for composite
cylindrical shells under axial compression. Thin-Wall Struct 2009;46:1350–8.
[20] Lene F, Duvaut G, Olivier-Mailhe M, Chaabane SB, Grihon S. An advanced
methodology for optimum design of a composite stiffened cylinder. Compos
Struct 2009;91:392–7.
[21] Liu PF, Zheng JY. Strength reliability analysis of aluminium–carbon fiber/epoxy
composite laminates. J Loss Prev Process Ind 2010;23:421–7.
[22] Gupta A, Choi B. Reliability-based load and resistance factor design for piping
an exploratory case study. Nucl Eng Des 2003;224:161–78.
[23] AISC.LRFD specification for structural steel buildings. Chicago (IL): American
Institute of Steel Construction; 2005.
[24] AASHTO. LRFD bridge design specifications. Washington (DC): American
Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials; 2010.
[25] API. Recommended practice for planning, designing and constructing fixed
offshore platforms-LRFD. Washington (DC): American Petroleum Institute; 1993.
[26] NASA. Buckling of thin-walled circular cylinders. Washington (DC): National
Aeronautics and Space Administration; 1968.
[27] Carvelli V, Panzeri N, Poggi C. Buckling strength of GFRP under-water vehicles.
Composites Part B 2001;32:89–101.
[28] Ayyub BM, Assakkaf IA, Avrithi K, Hill III RS, Gupta A, Shah N, et al.
Development of reliability-based load and resistance factor design (LRFD)
methods for piping. In: 13th International conference on nuclear engineering,
Beijing, China, 16–20 May 2005. ICONE 13-50486.
2852 B. Cai et al. / Composite Structures 93 (2011) 2844–2852

[29] Rais-Rohani M, Singh MN. Comparison of global and local response surface [32] Jones RM. Buckling of circular cylindrical shells with multiple orthotropic
techniques in reliability-based optimization of composite structures. Struct layers and eccentric stiffeners. AIAA J 1968;12:2301–5.
Multidiscrip Optim 2004;26:333–45. [33] Grenestedt JL. Optimization of bent composite cylinders. Compos Struct
[30] Atadero RA, Karbhari VM. Sources of uncertainty and design values for field- 1995;30:103–8.
manufactured FRP. Compos Struct 2009;89:83–93.
[31] Avrithi K, Ayyub BM. A reliability-based approach for the design of nuclear
piping for internal pressure. J Pressure Vessel Technol 2009;131:041201-
1–041201-10.