Experimental investigation of the scaling laws in laterally indented filament wound tubes supported with V shaped cradles

This experimental work is focused on understanding behavior of thin walled filament wound cylindrical Glass Reinforced Epoxy (GRE) tubes subjected to lateral indentation. These tubes are supported by V shaped cradles at each end. Scaling factors are established by using Buckingham Pi theorem for input parameters including geometric dimensions of the specimens, indenter, V shaped supports and indentation speed. Indentation tests are carried out to understand compliance of output parameters including force, energy and damage. Damage growth is recorded throughout the test by video camera and growth rate is calculated by using post experiment image processing. This work presents experimental results including slope of the force-displacement relation, energy absorbed and permanent deformation experienced by each specimen. Damage initiation and growth with respect to indentation displacement, force, energy and time is plotted and scaled to understand compliance with the scaling law. The force displacement, energy displacement and damage growth rate is compared with the existing results from the literature. Some interesting comparisons are observed between the current and existing results in the literature for a study even not meant for scaling analysis. Damage growth rate for all specimens collapse on same trend when data is scaled with non-dimensional factor n³.