Behavior of Pultruded GFRP Columns
Daniel Cardoso1; Eduardo Batista2
1 PUC-Rio; 2 COPPE-UFRJ
doi:10.20906/CPS/CILAMCE2015-0808
Resumo
Pultruded members of glass-fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) have been increasingly used in construction, especially because of their elevated strength / weight ratio and good performance in aggressive environments if compared to traditional building materials. Pultruded GFRP has a compressive strength similar to mild structural steel. On the other hand, longitudinal modulus of elasticity is low and the combination of very low modulus-to-strength ratio with the use of slender sections subject to compression leads to important instability problems that. This issue is aggravated by the considerably lower-still transverse and shear moduli, resulting from the mostly unidirectional reinforcement of GFRP This work aims to present a comprehensive approach to the behavior and strength of GFRP columns. A novel method to determine local buckling critical stresses and a theoretical model to predict compressive strength of real columns are presented. Local buckling expressions are validated numerically - using Finite Strip Method (FSM) - and experimentally. An experimental program on square tubes is also presented and the results are compared with a lower bound compressive strength curve.
Palavras-chave: Glass-fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP); Columns; Compressive Strength; Stability