Volume 16, Issue 5, 2007, Pages 173-180

LETTER: BUTT JOINING OF SIMILAR & DISSIMILAR PIPE MATERIAL BY COLD JOINING PROCESS

J. Ramkumar, A.K. Singhal, Ritesh Kumar Singh and Prashant Kumar

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, India

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed N/A

Received 16 June 2007; accepted 21 September 2007

ABSTRACT

In this work, cold butt FRP joints were developed between two similar & dissimilar pipe materials by winding up balanced glass fabric mats in varying orientation. The glass fabric mats were wetted with controlled quantity of resin and wound circumferentially at the place of joining. The strength of the cold butt joints was determined by flexural bend test, fatigue test and internal pressure leak test. It is clear from the experiments that the FRP joint strength is almost as good as the strength of the pipe material. The mechanisms of failure are also discussed.

Keywords: Cold butt FRP joint, flexural bend test, internal pressure leak test, fatigue test, balanced glass fabric mat