Material Forming - ESAFORM 2023 Materials Research Forum LLC
Materials Research Proceedings 28 (2023) 347-556 [Link]
Process and structural simulation for the development of a pressure
vessel through filament winding technology
BIANCHI Iacopo1,a *, FORCELLESE Archimede1,b, GALLIANI Francesco2,c,
GRECO Luciano1,d, MIGNANELLI Chiara1,e and TREVISAN Giulio2,f
1
Università Politecnica delle Marche, Via Brecce Bianche 12, 60131 Ancona, Italy
2
COMEC INNOVATIVE S.R.L., Via Papa Leone XIII 40, 66100 Chieti, Italy
a
[Link]@[Link], [Link]@[Link], [Link]@[Link],
d
[Link]@[Link], [Link]@[Link], [Link]@[Link] l
Keywords: Filament Winding, CFRP, Pressure Vessel, FEM Simulation
Abstract. Recently, Università Politecnica delle Marche and COMEC Innovative srl are involved
in the research project “Smart Tow Winding” funded by MIUR (Ministry of Education, University
and Research), concerning the development of an innovative process for the realization of a
pressure vessel through Filament Winding (FW) technology. In this context, a design procedure
for type IV composite pressure vessel is proposed. To design the component, the dedicated
simulation software CADWIND was used to virtually generate the pressure vessel through the
definition of the desired geometry, the type of prepreg, the number of layers and the bandwidth.
The generated file was imported in the FEM simulation software Siemens NX with the aim of
evaluating the structural resistance under an internal pressure of 70 MPa. Different external
configurations of mandrels and stratification were tested in order to optimize the geometry of the
vessel and the resistance to weight ratio. A high performance and low weight vessel configuration
was finally identified.
Introduction
In recent years, the market for lightweight structural components has constantly increased and it
has triggered the use of high performance composite materials such as Carbon Fiber Reinforced
Polymers (CFRPs). These components find applications in several sectors such as sport equipment,
energy production, and biomedical. Moreover, they are particularly suitable for road and aerospace
transport applications. In fact, the weight saving achieved by means of high specific mechanical
properties composites can result in a reduction in fuel use and, consequently, lower service life
costs and environmental impacts [1-3]. Despite significant effort in automation [4], at present,
carbon fiber parts production strongly relies on manual operations and it is therefore time
consuming and expensive. For this reason, to achieve a sustainable development of composite
materials and innovative transport systems, it is crucial to improve manufacturing systems
automation and production speed [5].
In this context, MIUR (Ministry of Education, University and Research) is funding the research
project titled “Smart Tow Winding” concerning the development of an innovative process for the
fabrication of a pressure vessel through Filament Winding (FW) technology involving the Marche
Polytechnic University and COMEC Innovative srl.
In this regard, the development of the technology of Smart Tow Winding constitutes an
innovation in the corporate sector as it allows to combine an innovative material, such as
composite, with an automated production process. This technology is an automated version of the
conventional filament winding (FW) process, which is a widely practiced technique for high
performance composite structures, such as pressure vessels, fuel tanks, pipes, and rocket motor
Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. Any further distribution of
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Research Forum LLC.
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Materials Research Proceedings 28 (2023) 347-556 [Link]
cases. FW allows the production of composite parts by winding composite filaments over a rotating
mandrel. The winding angle of the filament can be modified depending of the expected loads on
the components, maximizing the mechanical resistance along the most stressed directions. In this
way it is possible to satisfy the stringent structural requirements of the aerospace and transport
industries.
Smart tow winding can be used for the construction of fuel storage tanks, containing from
combustible gases to natural gases, which nowadays are an excellent solution to reduce CO₂
emissions. The traditional structure of tanks, used for on-board storage of gaseous fuel under
pressure, present a central cylindrical body and two dome-shaped external caps; this is due to the
fact that spheres incur the lowest membrane stress on their walls compared to any other shape
[6,7]. These pressure tanks can be realized in metals, composite materials or obtained as a
combination of these materials. In particular, five different types of vessels are defined [8]: Type
I, II, III, IV, V. Type I is fully made by metal material, while Type II consist in an inner metal liner
supporting 55% of the internal pressure load, reinforced with composite hoop wraps. Type III, is
similar to Type II with an inner metal liner, externally covered by a composite reinforcement
supporting up to 80% of the pressure load. For what concern Type IV, it is made externally of
composite material and presents an inner liner made of plastic material, which does not support
the load, but contains the gas and works as a mandrel for the Filament Winding process. The last
typology, Type V, it is fully made by composite material, without internal liner.
Generally, gas used in industrial applications is stored inside cylindrical Type I tanks, since
they are the least expensive, but the heaviest. Type II tanks, on the other hand, are commonly used
at high pressures for stationary applications: they are lighter than Type I tanks, but at the same
time more expensive. For uses where high lightness must be guaranteed, Type III, IV, and V tanks
are used, in which the composite material is generally reinforced by means of glass, aramid, or
carbon fibers [9].
Specifically, Type IV and V ones are the lightest ones at all, as they do not have metal liners;
however, they are the most expensive due to the use of composite material.
With regard to the winding patterns with which these tanks can be made, they vary, depending
on the geometry of the tank, the manufacturing process, the fiber arrangement, the precision of the
machine, and the cost. Since filament-wound composite pressure vessels are more inclined to
failure in domed sections, the shape of the dome and the winding of the fibers are important for
the structural integrity of the vessel [10].
The high number of parameters related to pressure vessel production (e.g. number, percentage
coverage and orientation of layers, filament path, raw materials, internal liner..) makes the design
process complicated and time consuming. For this reason, a rapid and easy to apply design
procedure for filament wound parts is required.
Hence, in the context of advanced composite manufacturing processes and simulations [11],
this work focuses on the design and optimization of a type IV pressure vessel since it is a promising
alternative in various applications (i.e. energy and transport) were low weight and high
performances are required. After preliminary considerations with structural theories (netting
theory, isotensoid vessel), virtual models were created by means of a FW dedicated software that
allowed to define all the parameters of several possible composite layers. An iterative procedure
with a FEA software was then used to optimize the structure parameters considering typical
working loads (70 MPa internal pressure) and constraints.
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Materials and Methods
In the present work, a preliminary design of a Type IV pressure vessel was investigated. The tank
under pressure is characterized by a 380 mm diameter in the central cylindrical zone and a total
length of about 540 mm. An internal thermoplastic liner, in high-density polyethylene (HDPE), is
used as mandrel during the filament winding process. For the composite material used for the
external winding, a towpreg composed by a thermosetting polymer matrix reinforced with carbon
fibers, was chosen. The internal service pressure and burst pressure values were defined equal to
70 and 105 MPa, respectively, with a safety factor of 1.5, according to the suitable values in several
transport applications [12]. Details about the material parameters according to their datasheet are
reported in Table 1. The mechanical properties of the composite material were calculated
considering the general “rule of mixture” and a fiber weight fraction equal to 68%.
Table 1. Mechanical properties of matrix, carbon fibers and composite
material.
Material parameters Unit Values
Carbon fibers (Toray T700)
Tensile strength MPa 4900
Young modulus GPa 230
Elongation at break % 2.1
Density g/cm³ 1.8
Volume fraction % 56.3
Epoxy resin
Tensile strength MPa 73
Young modulus GPa 3.7
Elongation at break % 9
Density g/cm³ 1.1
Volume fraction % 43.7
Composite
Tensile strength (longitudinal) MPa 2790
Tensile strength (transversal) MPa ~73
Young modulus (longitudinal) GPa 131.1
Young modulus (transversal) GPa 8.3
Density g/cm³ 1.6
To design the pressure vessel, an iterative procedure was followed (Fig. 1). Input geometric
parameters were used to define the dome profile through a spreadsheet, while the design
parameters, such as carbon fiber mechanical properties, service pressure and safety factor, were
used to lead the netting analysis. The obtained results were implemented in CADWIND simulation
software to virtually generate the pressure vessel through the definition of the desired geometry,
the type of prepreg, the number of layers and the bandwidth. Then, the generated file was imported
in the FEM simulation software Siemens NX with the aim of evaluating the structural resistance
under the internal service and burst pressure values of 70 and 105 MPa. If the results obtained
satisfy the safety structural requirements, the stratification analyzed can be considered as an
acceptable design from the mechanical requirements perspective; otherwise, the study should
continue identifying a new stratification that improves criticalities arising from the previous one.
Moreover, other than the structural requirements, the weight of the structure was evaluated during
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each design iteration in order to identify the alternative that fulfils safety conditions and presents
the lightest weight possible among the considered laminations.
Fig. 1. Iterative design procedures applied for the definition of the optimal pressure vessel.
Netting analysis.
The netting analysis is a method that can be used to preliminarily estimate the thickness of
helical and hoop layers of a composite tank that allow it to withstand the working loading
conditions. The analysis considers that the pressure load is only supported by carbon fibers and
the epoxy resin does not give any structural contribution. According to Mariotte theory, the internal
pressure yields to two main stress components along the circumferential and axial directions. The
first one is supported by helicoidal windings, while the second by hoop windings. For this reason,
many tubular structures or tanks are produced using both low values of winding angles (helicoidal
windings) and values near to 90° (hoop windings). Therefore, this theory allows to calculate the
thickness of the fiber layers considering any combination of two different values of winding angles
to obtain the tank laminate structure [13].
Spreadsheet isotensoid theory.
In order to guarantee high structural strength of the pressure vessel, the definition of the external
geometry of the domes is fundamental since it is the most complex zone of the component. To
generate the tridimensional geometry, a meridian curve was realized and then was rotated around
a central axis. Referring to the European patent of isotensoid tanks obtained by filament winding
process [14], this curve was defined by points through a spreadsheet in which input data of
cylindrical zone diameter and length and opening end’s diameter were inserted. The output
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information of this step was the meridian curve, which was than exported to a file compatible with
the filament winding dedicated software CADWIND.
Filament Winding process simulation.
The simulation of filament winding process was performed using CADWIND software, which
can simulate the winding process, based on a physical model, and calculate the fiber path and
winding pattern (Fig. 2) [15]. After importing the geometry of the mandrel, composite laminates
were created using different process parameters, which are listed in Table 2.
This allows to create a file to be imported in FEA software that reports information about the
model mesh, and laminate stratification, orientation and thickness. With this model, the wound
filament is considered perfectly straight and possible undulation and degradation of the composite
mechanical properties are not considered [16].
Fig. 2. Simulation of filament winding process performed using CADWIND software.
A friction factor equal to 0.3 was considered for the composite prepreg in the process
simulation. The “Turning zone” represent the zone in which the filament orientation starts to
change the winding angle in order to come back and wind the opposite mandrel side and the
“Coverage” represents percentage of filament coverage on the mandrel. The associated values are
defined to obtain a symmetric component avoiding a high overlap of the wound material that
implicates a thickness increase. The material parameters are listed in Table 3.
Different external configurations of mandrels and stratification were tested in order to optimize
the geometry of the vessel and the resistance to weight ratio.
An accurate choice of layering requires many considerations such as identifying the number of
composite layers to deposit and defining the winding angle of each layer. The latter is fundamental,
as the more the angle is reduced, the greater is tank’s area covered. The choice of the winding
angle also influences the mechanical resistance of the component: if it is about 90°, the resistance
to tangential stresses increases, while material layers with low values of winding angle better
withstand axial stresses.
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Table 2. Laminate parameters.
Laminaton Winding angle Turning zone Turning zone Coverage
[°] front to back from [%]
1 10 20 105 102.1
2 15 14 111 133.3
3 20 8 117 107.0
4 25 5 120 102.1
5 30 7 118 130.1
6 35 5 120 122.8
7 40 6 119 147.1
8 45 9 116 153.6
9 50 12 113 150.2
10 55 15 110 140.3
11 60 17 108 120.7
12 65 27 98 123.8
13 70 30 95 188.2
14 75 35 90 155.5
15 80 41 84 162.2
16 85 40 85 184.7
Table 3. Material parameters.
TEX value Bandwidth Fiber Fiber Fiber Matrix Resulting ply
(single roving) (single roving) density volume mass density thickness
[g/km] [mm] [g/cm3] fraction fraction [g/cm3] [mm]
[%] [%]
1000 6 1.8 56.5 68 1.1 0.16
Moreover, it is necessary to deposit some hoop layers after a defined number of helicoidal layers
both to compact the underlying layers and to remove any resin’s excess.
Once identified the layering to analyze, the FEM file created is imported on the software used
to conduct FEM analysis.
Structural simulation of the pressure vessel.
In order to simulate the performances of the composite pressure vessel, the software Siemens
NX was used, with the FEA NX Nastran solver. To this purpose, the file created in CADWIND
was imported in NX to analyze the selected laminate. The model was imported as constituted by
2D shell elements with a defined laminate structure. The linear-elastic material mechanical
properties were defined, and a structural linear simulation was carried out. The preliminary
structural simulations of the pressure vessel conducted considering two fixed constraints on the
most external frames, at the end of the domes.
Results and Discussions
Thickness distribution on pressure vessel.
The netting theory was used to evaluate the thickness distribution on layers with both hoop (~90°)
and helical (variable θ) winding angles. The angle θ was continuously varied from 0° to 90°, and
the resulting laminate thickness was registered. It was observed that by increasing the value of θ,
the required thickness of helical layers increases while the number of hoop layers decreases.
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For θ values between 54° and 55°, if constant internal pressure is considered, the total thickness
value of the pressure vessel is minimized.
The resulting minimum total thickness of carbon fibers is about 10.18 mm, which is divided in
3.84 mm for helicoidal layers and 6.34 mm for hoop layers. Considering that netting theory
evaluates only the fibers contribution and that fiber volume fraction is about 56.3%, the minimum
thickness of total composite laminate is about 18.08 mm.
Pressure vessel model definition.
Based on pressure vessel dimensions, as described in section Spreadsheet isotensoid theory, a
meridian curve that represents the external domes profile was obtained. The medium thickness of
each layer depends on both the towpreg characteristics and the coverage percentage. In fact, in
order to guarantee a good covering of the mandrel, the towpreg tends to overlap itself involving a
greater coverage percentage than 100% on each layer. So, this confirm that the medium thickness
of each layer which approximately various from 0.2 mm to 0.3 mm depends on the coverage
percentage.
Considering these values and the results obtained by netting theory, to ensure that the tank
operates safely at least 70 - 80 layers of towpreg are required. According to this information, the
first layering tested was [856/104/154/204/856/304/354/454/856].
Table 4. Maximum stress and strain values of each reference layer.
Maximum stress Maximum strain
Winding
angle Internal pressure Internal pressure Internal pressure Internal pressure
70 MPa 105 MPa 70 MPa 105 MPa
85° 993 MPa 1500 MPa 0.004 0.006
10° 1290 MPa 2333 MPa 0.004 0.026
15° 899 MPa 1350 MPa 0.022 0.022
20° 788 MPa 1200 MPa 0.006 0.014
85° 990 MPa 1482 MPa 0.007 0.009
30° 720 MPa 1116 MPa 0.006 0.009
35° 800 MPa 1170 MPa 0.006 0.008
45° 820 MPa 1265 MPa 0.005 0.006
85° 992 MPa 1485 MPa 0.005 0.006
FEM simulations.
The mentioned layering was tested using both a service pressure of 70 MPa and a burst pressure
of 105 MPa to analyze the pressure vessel structural response under bursting conditions. This
laminate was characterized by 84 plies, a weight of 21 kg and a thickness of the cylindric zone of
about 20 mm. To observe the resulting stress and strain values of the pressure vessel, the results
obtained were analyzed considering a reference ply for each winding angle used in the laminate.
Table 4 shows the maximum values of stress and strain along the fibers direction evaluated in each
reference layers, imposing the different pressure values of 70 MPa and 105 MPa.
(a)
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(b)
Fig. 3. (a) Strain and (b) stress distributions on the ply with 10° winding angle
for the 105 MPa test.
Fig. 3 shows the strain and stress distributions on the ply with 10° winding angle obtained by
CADWIND software simulations. As far as the stress values is concerned, Fig. 3b shows that the
pressure vessel is in safe conditions also when internal burst pressure is applied; although there
are some areas that are more stressed than others, they fall within the set limit values of 2500 MPa.
For what concerns the strain values resulting from the service pressure analysis (Fig. 3a), the tank
is generally in safe condition with the exception of the ends of external domes where the reached
strain values are greater than the limit value of 0.007. As expected, it is noticed that stress and
strain values resulting from the test performed using burst pressure (105 MPa) are greater than
those obtained using the internal service pressure (70 MPa).
Summary
This study addressed the procedure used for the preliminary design and the structural analysis of
a Type IV pressure vessel. The focus was both on the definition of external domes geometry and
on the composite material used for the winding which confers the structural strength to the tank.
The identified laminate sequence is chosen using CADWIND, a software which is dedicated to
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filament winding processes. Then it was analysed to verify its structural behaviour through
Siemens NX FEA software. The main results are summarized below:
● According to netting analysis, the minimum value of total composite laminate thickness
is about 18.08 mm. Considering the thickness of the cylindric zone, the netting theory
provides results that are similar to those of the FEM simulations. However, more
complex approaches are needed for the domes of the vessels.
● Using a spreadsheet and knowing pressure vessel’s dimensions, the external domes
isotensoid geometry was defined.
● Netting analysis combined with CADWIND allowed to determine the minimum number
of layers to introduce on the layering, which is about 70 - 80 layers.
● The used laminate sequence is characterized by 84 plyes, a weight of 21 kg and a
thickness of the cylindric zone of about 20 mm.
● The FEM analysis shows that the tank tested using an internal pressure of 70 MPa is in
safe conditions in terms of stress and strain except for some criticalities on the ends of
the external domes.
● Instead, the tank tested using an internal pressure of 105 MPa is in safe conditions in
terms of stress only: strain values are higher than the limit on almost all layers analyzed.
This study can be considered as a starting point to optimize the layering through an iterative
process. In this way it is possible to obtain a pressure vessel which is in safe conditions also
considering strain values. Moreover, the procedure here presented can be used as a reference point
for the design of filament wound components with different mandrel geometry. Future works could
focus on a further optimization of the composite lamination by means of localized reinforcement
(i.e. composite patches) that provides increased strength in the highest stress regions while
reducing the number of laminate layers and the overall part weight. The FEM results will be
validated by means of pressure test to determine the quality of the lamination and the proposed
design procedure.
Acknowledgement
This research was supported by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR, Ministero
dell’Università e della Ricerca) within the National Operational Programme on Research and
Innovation 2014-2022 (Programma Operativo Nazionale “Ricerca e Innovazione” 2014-2020
(PON “R&I” 2014-2020) - area di specializzazione “Fabbrica Intelligente”) project “SMART
TOW WINDING Nuove soluzioni ad elevata automazione per l’impregnazione e avvolgimento di
Tow” (CUP: B19C20000340005, ARS01_00871 ).
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