Manufacture and multiaxial test of composite tube specimens with braided glass fiber reinforcement

Textile-reinforced composites have excellent specific mechanical properties and outstanding energy absorption capabilities, which makes them candidates for the application in modern lightweight structures. Especially, textile-reinforced structures based on the very efficient braiding technique are predestinated for high volume composite manufacture. In this paper, some combined production techniques (winding or woven sleeves methods) of tubular samples with braided reinforcement in combination with winding and related test techniques for the material characterization are presented. Experimental tests were conducted applying uniaxial loads as well as superposed loads (tension/compression–torsion (T/C–T), internal pressure). Accompanying numerical simulations are currently performed.