Instrumented tests on composite pressure vessels (type IV) under internal water pressure

Abstract Much work has already been done on Type IV high-pressure vessels, both from an experimental and numerical point of view. The prediction of the maximum pressure before bursting, the effect of thermal cycles, defect and damage tolerance, fire resistance, liner collapse are topics generally numerically studied at the scale of the samples. In these previous works, the passage from the specimen to the structure is not fully validated by comparing the models with experimental measurements at the scale of the tank. However, this correlation with numerical simulation requires collecting a large amount of information, often by combining several metrological studies. In this work, non-destructive instrumented tests on a vessel subjected to internal pressure were performed coupled with optical measurements (3D displacement fields) and acoustic emission to understand the damage kinetics. Three load-unload tests are performed at speeds of 1, 10, and 100 MPa/min up to 87.5 MPa pressure, followed by a cyclic test (160 cycles). The results obtained show the interest of coupling field measurements with acoustic emission to evaluate the behavior of the pressure vessels and compare them with numerical models.