Behaviour of Pultruded GFRP Sections Subject to Concentric Compression

 

 

Speaker:

Kent A. Harries, Ph.D., FACI, P.Eng.

Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Swanson School of Engineering, University of Pittsburgh

 

 

Time: 2014-5-8, 15:00-16:00

Venue: Civil Engineering B504

Chair：Dr. Kaoshan Dai

 

Outline:

Although significant efforts are underway worldwide to develop reliable standards for the design of glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP) pultruded structural members, there remain a number of important gaps in the knowledge and understanding of the behaviour of these members. In this seminar, the results of an experimental investigation of the strength of GFRP pultruded columns are presented. While most recent works have been focused on I-shaped sections comprised by slender plates, this work is focused on square tube columns having different sections resulting in a range of compact and slender elements being tested. Over 100 concentric compression tests of eight different tube geometries resulting in a range of short, intermediate and long columns comprised of slender, intermediate and compact plates (walls) are presented. Subsequently, an additional thirty-six tests of slender-through-compact I-sections having varying material properties and fibre architecture were tested. Experimental data are presented and compared with rigourous theoretical predictions and results from finite strip method (FSM) analyses. The interaction between crushing, and local and global buckling is highlighted and shown to be very important to the behaviour of all but long columns. Finally, closed form equations, based on energy methods and leveraging the relatively limited range of geometry and material properties of available pultruded GFRP sections are proposed. These are shown to agree well with finite strip predictions over a range of orthotropic properties and to converge to well established solutions for plate buckling.

An interesting aside in this study was the extensive innovative material characterisation work required to obtain the necessary, but very difficult-to-obtain transverse GFRP material properties. A brief description of some of these simple, yet innovative approaches is also discussed.

 

About the Speaker:

Kent Harries is an Associate Professor of Structural Engineering and Mechanics at the University of Pittsburgh. Harries is a Fellow of the American Concrete Institute (FACI), a member of the Executive Committee of the International Institute for FRP in Construction (IIFC) and a Professional Engineer (P.Eng.) in Ontario, Canada. He is an Editor of the International Journal of Construction and Building Materials (Elsevier) and FRP International (IIFC) and an Associate Editor of the ASCE Journal of Bridge Engineering. Dr. Harries is the author of over 200 peer-reviewed papers. His research interests include the use of non-traditional materials (from bamboo to CFRP) in civil infrastructure and the design of high-rise structures. He received his doctorate from McGill University in 1995.