Experimental investigation of the hydrostatic compression of a hollow glass microspheres/epoxy resin under high‐pressure conditions at the full ocean depth

Abstract

An experimental study was performed on a new composite material, namely, a hollow glass microsphere/epoxy resin composite material. As a new type of solid buoyancy material, the proposed composite material is promising for use in submersible, deep-sea oil risers. This composite material has many advantages, including the ability to bear extreme temperature, corrosion, and hydrostatic pressure up to tens of megapascals. In this study, the hydrostatic compression properties of six different mass filling ratio samples were tested based on an advanced triaxial testing system with varying temperatures. Some basic parameters, such as density, axial and radial stress-strain curves, and volume strain, were obtained. The elastic modulus and Poisson's ratio were subjected to nonlinear fitting. Additionally, the elastic-plastic performance was analyzed according to the residual strain. A new method to characterize the properties of the material is proposed. These data will be used to develop new constitutive models and to predict the structural strain in engineering applications under high hydrostatic compression.

Lightweight, hydrostatic pressure‐resistance, thermal insulating epoxy syntactic foam with a multiscale ternary structure for marine engineering application

“…In order to study the change in thermal conductivity of LWTP-ESF after different hydrostatic pressure treatments, LWTP-ESF with the highest specific compression strength (HGMs content of LWTP-ESF is 25 wt%) was treated with different hydrostatic pressures (5,10,15,and 20 MPa). The effect of hydrostatic pressure on the thermal conductivity of LWTP-ESF is depicted in Figure 4B.…”

“…[2][3][4] Especially, solid buoyancy materials are used to balance gravity and buoyancy in deep-sea equipments, which needs to have the characteristics of low density, higher hydrostatic pressure resistance, and sufficient buoyancy. 5 Epoxy syntactic foam is one of the most extensively utilized solid buoyancy materials, categorized into open-cell foams and closed-cell foams. The open-cell foams are typically produced through chemical foaming methods, achieving a density as low as 0.2 g/cm 3 .…”

“…The exploitation of marine resources cannot be separated from deep‐sea development equipments 2–4 . Especially, solid buoyancy materials are used to balance gravity and buoyancy in deep‐sea equipments, which needs to have the characteristics of low density, higher hydrostatic pressure resistance, and sufficient buoyancy 5 …”

Influence of moisture absorption on the compressive behavior of halloysite nanotube reinforced buoyant nanocomposite foams for maritime applications

“…10 Since syntactic foams offer enhanced compressive strength and stiffness needed by sandwich materials, they are widely used in marine structures. [11][12][13] Zhai et al 14 fabricated the hollow glass microballoon/epoxy foams for deep-sea submersibles. They carried-out triaxial compression testing to note the hydrostatic pressure resistance with varied microballoon content in the epoxy matrix.…”

Water absorption in hollow glass microsphere composites under hydrostatic pressure: Mechanisms and influencing parameters

“…Several studies investigate the behavior of these composites under mechanical loading [9][10][11][12][13]. Considering especially hydrostatic pressure [14][15][16][17], by applying pressure to a syntactic foam, a decrease in the volume directly related to the bulk compressibility of the material can be observed: the lower the compressibility of the composite, the greater the variation of the volume. For higher pressures, a collapse in the glass microspheres lead to large volume variations [18].…”