Ultimate Bending Strength of Composite Beams
Publication: Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering
Volume 3, Issue 4
Abstract
This paper deals with glass‐fiber‐reinforced plastic (GFRP) beams produced by the pultrusion process. Pultruded composite members are being used extensively as beams for structural applications. Widespread use is motivated primarily due to the light weight and corrosion resistance of composite materials. Low‐cost, mass‐produced pultruded beams are becoming competitive with conventional materials like steel and reinforced concrete. Common structural shapes have open or closed sections of thin composite walls. The ultimate bending strength of pultruded composite beams is limited by various failure mechanisms. Most failure modes are precipitated by local buckling of the thin walls. Analytical models for several local buckling modes are used in this work to model observed behavior in commercially available composite beams. Experimental data for composite beams are presented for comparison. Local buckling initiates a failure mode that eventually results in material degradation and total failure of the beam. Due to the large elongation to failure of the composite material, only postbuckling deformations can subject the material to deformations large enough to produce failure. Experimental results are shown to sustain these arguments. Analytical models for local buckling are developed and correlated with observed behavior.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
1.
Bank, L. C. (1989). “Properties of pultruded fiber reinforced plastic structural members.” 68th Annual Meeting, Transportation Research Board, 1–15.
2.
Barbero, E. J. (1991a). “Pultruded structural shapes—from the constituents to the structural behavior.” Soc. for the Advancement of Mater. and Process Engrg., 27(1), 25–30.
3.
Barbero, E. J., and Raftoyiannis, I. (1990). “Buckling analysis of pultruded composite columns,” ASME Winter Annual Meeting, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 47–52.
4.
Barbero, E. J. (1991b). “Pultruded structural shapes: Stress analysis and failure prediction.” Advanced composite materials in civil engineering structures, S. L. Iyer, ed., ASCE, New York, N.Y., 194–204.
5.
Barbero, E. J., and Sonti S. (1991). “Micro‐mechanical modeling for pultruded composite beams,” presented at the 32nd Structural Dynamics Conference, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Baltimore, Md.
6.
Brush, D. O., and Almroth, B. O. (1975). Buckling of bars, plates, and shells. McGraw Hill, New York, N.Y.
7.
Creative pultrusions design manual. (1988). Creative Pultrusions Inc., Alum Bank, Pa.
8.
Fu, S. H., Spyrakos, C., Prucz, J., and Barbero, E. J. (1990). “Structural performance of plastic I‐beams.” Eighth Annual Structures Congress, ASCE, 507–508.
9.
Jones, R. M. (1975). Mechanics of composite materials. Hemisphere Publishing Corp., New York, N.Y.
10.
Yu, M. T., and Kincis, T. (1985). Static test methods for composites. 3rd Ed., George Lubin, ed., Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., New York, N.Y.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
Copyright © 1991 ASCE.
History
Published online: Nov 1, 1991
Published in print: Nov 1991
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.