Behavior of Glass Fiber Composite Pipes under Impact Load at Different Temperature Conditions: An Experimental Study

In this paper, the behavior of composite tubes made of glass fibers under low velocity impact loads due to falling weight in the temperature range of -15  to 100  is investigated. For this purpose, composite tubes with glass fibers and three types of epoxy resins, vinyl ester and polyester are produced and tested in different impact energy levels and temperature conditions. Maximum impact force, impact time and absorbed energy are compared with each other for different situations. The results indicate that the epoxy resin tubes has a better performance in impact energy absorption than the other two types of resin used. As operating temperature increases, load carrying capacity of the tubes decreases, while the duration of impact time and amount of energy absorption increase.