Failure criteria for use in the design environment

This paper is concerned with the use of composite failure criteria in a design situation. The example chosen is from the process industry which employs composite materials in demanding applications and has requirements for simple, pragmatic and auditable procedures. This is distinct from other environments such as the aerospace industry or in R&D where there are resources available to undertake more sophisticated analyses. In the context of this failure prediction exercise the methods currently adopted by the process sector have been applied, albeit with some modification, since materials of construction are different. Attempts have also been made to predict ultimate strengths, although this is not the prime purpose of a design code, and it is envisaged that there will be some discrepancies owing to the fact that such issues as material non-linearity and differences in tensile and compressive properties are ignored. The more interesting relationship to note will be that between the derived design allowables and the initiation of failure since the basis of chemical process plant design is that normal service loads should be kept within these limits. Crown copyright (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.