PSI - Issue 77

Sunny O. Uguzo et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 77 (2026) 521–528

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Fig. 1. Depiction of a composite riser and applied operational loads (Amaechi et al., 2019).

A TCP consisting of isotropic inner and outer liners, and an orthotropic fibre reinforced composite laminate core under thermomechanical loading has been considered. The layers are stacked with the inner and outer liners (1 st and N th layers, respectively), while laminate layers are layers from the 2 nd to (N–1) th , see Fig. 2).

Fig. 2. TCP configuration in cylindrical coordinate system (Hastie et al., 2021).

2.2. Method

Building on a validated 3D FE model (Menshykov et al., 2024), this research analysed a TCP configuration (see Table 1) based on a realistic, non-proprietary geometry (Hastie et al., 2021). TCP Laminate architectures and geometry were varied to assess interactions with thermal gradients changes, identify dominant failure mechanisms and internal surface temperatures where transitions from buckling to material failure possibly occur. The TCP comprises a unidirectional AS4 carbon/APC-2 PEEK laminate core perfectly bonded to homogenous APC-2 PEEK inner/outer liners. The APC-2 PEEK, with glass transition temperature of 143 o C and light load capability up to 260 o C is suited for thermal service (Hastie et al., 2021). Temperature dependent properties for the laminate and liners were implemented using literature data (Grove, 1988; Hastie et al., 2019; Yousefpour & Nejhad, 2004) and supplemented by interpolation and extrapolation. Thermal and mechanical loads were applied concurrently via two coupled temperature-displacement steps. Internal and external pressure were applied on TCP respective surfaces, with axial compression implemented as a concentrated force at a reference point on one end. The opposite end was fully fixed. Uniform bending moments were imposed at both ends and internal surface temperature prescribed as a boundary condition. Sea temperature was applied on the external surface via a convective film coefficient to imitate free convection to the sea environment. Abaqus C3D20RT mesh elements were also employed.