Monotonic Burst Pressure of Non-Metallic Filament Wound Composite Pipe

Due to relatively low cost and combination of ductility and strength, metal is preferred
material for pipeline in oil and gas industry. However, metal can easily get corroded
which is the major problem faced by the industry. To tackle the issue, non-metallic
composite pipe was proposed. Since the non-metallic composite is relatively new,
studies on the monotonic burst pressure is quite rare. Efforts were made to study the
monotonic burst pressure last semester but failed due to the leaking problem. The
objectives of this project are to design end caps without any leakage problem and to
evaluate the monotonic burst pressure of the composite pipe. In this project, high density
polyethylene (HDPE) was used as the liner, epoxy was applied as matrix and glass fiber
was employed as the reinforcement. Filament winding was used to fabricate the
composite pipe. In the process of fabrication, the composition used was 50:50 (epoxy/
glass fiber). The pipe underwent preliminary leak test using the manual hydrostatic
pump at UTP and monotonic burst test at Sirim Venture Tech (SVT). Sdn. Bhd, Penang.
The preliminary leak test was done successfully without any leakage at 30 bar. The
average monotonic burst pressure was 102.5 bar which is higher than the design
pressure for similar pipe made from carbon steel [2].