Modelling the effect of porosity on the mechanical properties of unidirectional composites. The case of thick-walled pressure vessels

International audience; The present article highlights morphological features present in composite pressure vessels. The use of X-ray microtomography provides three-dimensional information about the voids in a large thick-walled type 3 pressure vessel at the mesoscopic scale. The observations show that the porosity structure depends strongly on composite thickness and orientation. A numerical approach is proposed to model realistically the damage phenomena in pressure vessels.