Low-Velocity Impact Response and Residual Burst Strength of Fiber-Wound Composite Pressure Vessels

The increasing use of lightweight fiber-wound composite pressure vessels in energy-storage and transportation applications has heightened the need to understand impact-induced structural damage and the associated degradation in residual load-bearing capacity. Despite their superior stiffness-to-weight ratio and corrosion resistance, these vessels are susceptible to low-velocity impacts (LVI) during handling and service, which may compromise their residual burst capacity. To address this issue, the present study adopts a sequential numerical procedure to examine the dynamic impact response and post-impact failure behavior of thin-walled composite vessels. The modeling approach uses ABAQUS/Explicit and ABAQUS/Standard sequentially with VUMAT and UMAT subroutines, incorporating the LaRC05-based damage model and a cohesive-zone interface model to capture both intralaminar and interlaminar degradation. With increasing impact energy, the peak impact displacement increases, indicating more pronounced deformation. The residual burst analysis further shows that higher impact energy reduces the vessel’s calculated burst pressure. The predicted burst pressure of an undamaged configuration is 22.95 MPa, serving as a reference for evaluating strength degradation under impact loading. The findings contribute to a deeper understanding of impact response and residual strength behavior in composite pressure vessels, providing a numerical reference for impact-related structural design and safety optimization in advanced energy systems.