Deformation analysis of thermally loaded composite tubes

The thermally induced deformation of anisotropic composite tubes with different thicknesses is studied by means of finite element analyses and interferometric measurement techniques. Of particular interest are the differences in the deformation behaviour in comparison to isotropic tubes. It is shown that characteristic bending phenomena appear at the front and shell surfaces of the tubes, due to the three-dimensional stress state near the edges. The simulated thermal deformation is experimentally verified by means of holographic as well as speckle interferometry. The results of this work show that the implemented micro- and macromechanics of both used finite element systems enables one to properly predict the thermal deformation of composite tubes, if a suitable model is used. Nevertheless, especially for thin tubes, significant discrepancies between the simulated and the measured deformation could appear, owing to the disregard of the complex microscopic structure in the simulation. Thus, experimental verifications with fieldwise measurement techniques should generally be performed.