On the mechanical behaviour of industrial PVC pipes under pressure loading: experimental and numerical studies

The purpose of this work is to assess the circumferential mechanical characteristics and the mechanical strength of industrial PVC pipes, especially under pressure loading. The investigation and the prediction of the resistance to deformation or failure of PVC pipes under internal pressure are essential to develop their potential application. To this end, two approaches are retained in this paper. The first one consists of developing an experimental apparatus devoted to study the mechanical properties of PVC pipes at laboratory scale. A split disk tensile (SDT) apparatus was developed according to the tensile test machine available in our laboratory. Such developed apparatus permits to characterize successfully more than one pipe diameter. The second approach consists of building a successful finite element (FE) model which will be able to predict the mechanical response of the pipes when submitted to pressure loading in radial direction. The obtained experimental and numerical results were firstly evaluated and then, their correlation was discussed. The robustness and efficiency of the FE model is assessed on the basis of the experimental/numerical correlation analysis. From the main results, the established model is shown to well predict the mechanical properties of polymeric pipes when will be exposed to mechanical loadings and other factors.