Filament winding of long tapered tubes

This thesis presents a number of procedures and methods developed to fabricate tapered filament wound tubes intended to serve as electric utility poles. The two basic winding patterns, circumferential and geodesic are discussed in detail and mathematical models presented with subsequent illumination of critical properties as these patterns alter the material properties of the tubes. Models of the interaction of the two types of winding patterns are presented describing the non-linear variations of material properties. Techniques for the production of light weight composite mandrels with unequal dome apertures with integrated part extraction properties are described.; Experimental tubes were fabricated using a robotic filament winding machine and tested to failure. Full scale tubes were constructed using a variety of winding patterns and tested to determine the equivalent ANSI 05.1 Pole Standard. A second set of smaller poles were constructed to examine the behavior of jointed poles composed of two sections coupled with a variable length ferrule type joint.; A computer program is described to simulate the load performance behavior of both single and multiple section poles composed of both circumferential and geodesic winding patterns. The computer program contains subroutines to determine the thickness and wind angle drift at any arbitrary point along the length of the pole sections. Thus permitting the direct solution of the effective axial stiffness at any point along the length of the structure using classical lamination theory principles. The incorporation of the Fundamental Bernoulli-Euler beam deflection equations, capable of modeling large deflections, into an iterative procedure within the program permits the solution of deflection under arbitrary loading. The analysis program is structured to permit the investigator to use inputs that are compatible with those required by the computer controlled filament winding machines. Computer modeling is compared to experimental results and demonstrates encouraging concurrence. A demonstration of the ability of a simplified computer program to determine the best method of upgrading a pole from one ANSI 05.1 class to a higher class is described. The work described is expected to result in the ability of fabricators to quickly determine the most appropriate laminate structure to meet specific performance criteria eliminating the trial and error process. The program also permits the solution of the design problem using inputs compatible with the computer controlled filament winding machine eliminating the need for translation to winding machine inputs.