Device for Determining the Load-Bearing Capacity of Cylindrical Shells

• Main Authors: HUEHNE Christian, WAGNER Ronald, NIEMANN Steffen
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 28.09.2017
• Subjects: INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIRCHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES; MEASURING; PHYSICS; TESTING

A device is configured to allow for the load-bearing capacity of cylindrical shells of a composite fiber material that are at risk of buckling to be determined. The device allows for deriving improved reduction factors for analytical calculation of the design load, which enables an improved approximation to the actual load-bearing capacity. The device includes a load distribution head for applying an axially acting force to a cylinder shell introduced into the device; a dent actuator for producing a single dent in a surface of the cylinder shell in a predetermined dent direction with a predetermined dent depth; a fixed support for fixing the dent depth of the single dent produced by the dent actuator in the predetermined dent direction; a dent force sensor for determining a dent force in the predetermined dent direction of the single dent that is fixed in the predetermined dent direction when a steadily increasing, axially acting force is applied to the cylinder shell by the load distribution head; a control unit for actuating the load distribution head for applying a steadily increasing, axially acting force to the cylinder shell until a complete failure of the cylinder shell is detected as a load step by an axial force sensor; and a digital data memory for storing a current dent force in an event of a complete failure of the cylinder shell and the applied axially acting force on the cylinder shell at the current dent force for the predetermined dent depth.