Effect of Temperature on the Mechanical Behavior of Wrapped Composite Joints
Marcio M. Arouche (TU Delft - Steel & Composite Structures)
Mathieu Koetsier (TU Delft - Steel & Composite Structures)
Marko Pavlovic (TU Delft - Steel & Composite Structures)
More Info
expand_more
Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.
Abstract
The wrapped composite joints have been introduced as a new technology to connect steel circular hollow sections of support structures for offshore wind turbines. The design and implementation of this innovation require predicting the effects of environmental conditions on the mechanical performance of the structure. In particular, temperature changes can generate interfacial stresses along the bonded interface between the two dissimilar materials, affecting the performance of the structure. This work aims to investigate the effect of short-term changes of temperature on the mechanical behavior of a wrapped composite joint. Specimens were produced with two steel tubes wrapped by a glass fiber composite laminate. Mechanical tests were performed under fatigue and static loading conditions. Experiments are carried out at room temperature (21 ℃) as well as at non-ambient temperature using a climate chamber at –10 ℃ 50 ℃ and 70 ℃. Results revealed that lower temperatures improve the performance of wrapped composite joints under both fatigue and static loading conditions. This points to a significant contribution of the thermally-induced effects on the performance of the structure due to the different coefficients of thermal expansion of the steel and composite materials. Experimental results obtained from this work can be applied to create numerical models capable of predicting the mechanical behavior of wrapped composite joints in different temperatures.