AE measurement was conducted in a series of pressuring tests of FRP pressure vessels in order to examine its applicability to the safety evaluation of vessels. Tested vessels were commercial FRP pressure vessels fabricated by filament winding of high strength glass fibers, impregnated epoxy resin, on a Al alloy liner. At the final stage of fabrication, they were subjected to autofrettage, an over-pressuring treatment to produce compressive residual stresses in metal liner. AE measurement results showed a strong Kaiser's effect and high felicity ratios. In a virgin vessel, very few AE signals were detected below the autofrettage pressure. Vessels containing artificial defects showed distinct increase in AE signals at the level of test pressure. AE origin map were obtained by triangular-zone calculation. Discussions are directed, in particular, to the selection of threshold and to the applicability of AE measurement to the in-service inspection of FRP pressure vessel.
展开▼
