Performance of All-Polypropylene Composites at LNG Temperatures Available to Purchase

In the small scale LNG infrastructure, composite materials are scarcely employed. Potentially, cost effective solutions for LNG applications could be developed thanks to the advantages of composite materials over metals such as weight savings, design flexibility and recyclability. The research presented in this paper focuses on the mechanical performance of fully recyclable, thermoplastic Polypropylene (PP) composite tapes at cryogenic LNG temperatures. Quasi-static tensile tests performed on [±45] laminates made of plain woven plies of PURE^® show that at −196°C the behavior is bilinear with the failure strain of 6.5% and failure stress of 37 MPa. Such non-brittle failure behavior of PP is desirable for cryogenic applications. The other results presented in the paper contains [0/90] laminate results and the interlaminar shear strength characteristics at room and cryogenic temperatures.