Analytical and Experimental Study of Lateral and Distortional Buckling of FRP Wide-Flange Beams
Publication: Journal of Composites for Construction
Volume 1, Issue 4
Abstract
A combined analytical and experimental evaluation of flexural-torsional and lateral-distortional buckling of fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP) composite wide-flange (WF) beams is presented. Based on energy principles, the total potential energy equations for instability of FRP WF sections are derived using the nonlinear elastic theory. For the analysis of lateral-distortional buckling, a fifth-order polynomial shape function is adopted to model the deformed shape of web panels. The models are validated by testing two geometrically identical FRP WF beams but with distinct material architectures produced by the pultrusion process. The beams are tested under midspan concentrated loads to evaluate their flexural-torsional and lateral-distortional buckling responses. To detect rotations of the midspan cross sections and onset of critical buckling loads, horizontal transverse bars are attached to the beam's flanges, and the bar ends are connected to linear variable differential transducers (LVDTs). For the same purpose, we use strain gauges bonded to the upper and lower surfaces near to the free edges of the top flange. A good agreement between the proposed analytical approach and experimental and finite-element analyses results is obtained, and simplified engineering equations for flexural-torsional buckling are formulated. The proposed analytical solutions can be used to predict flexural-torsional and lateral-distortional buckling loads for other FRP shapes and to formulate simplified design equations.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
1.
ANSYS User's Manual. (1992). Swanson Analysis Systems, Inc., Houston, Pa.
2.
Barbero, E. J., and Raftoyiannis, I. G.(1994). “Lateral and distortional buckling of pultruded I-beams.”Composite Struct., 27(3), 261–268.
3.
Brooks, R. J., and Turvey, G. J. (1995). “Lateral buckling of pultruded GRP I-section cantilevers.”Composite Struct., 32(1–4), 203–215.
4.
Char, B. W., Geddes, K. O., Gonnel, G. H., Leong, B. L., Monagon, M. B., and Watt, S. M. (1991). MapleV: library reference manual. Springer-Verlag Inc., New York, N.Y.
5.
Davalos, J. F., Qiao, P., and Barbero, E. J.(1996a). “Multiobjective material architecture optimization of pultruded FRP I-beams.”Composite Struct., 35(3), 271–281.
6.
Davalos, J. F., Salim, H. A., Qiao, P., Lopez-Anido, R., and Barbero, E. J. (1996b). “Analysis and design of pultruded FRP shapes under bending.”Composites, Part B: Engrg. J., 27B(3–4), 295–305.
7.
Davalos, J. F., Qiao, P., and Salim, H. A. (1996c). “Characterization of pultruded FRP wide-flange beams.”Proc. of ASCE 4th Mat. Engrg. Conf., ASCE, New York, N.Y., 223–232.
8.
Hancock, G. J.(1978). “Local, distortional, and lateral buckling of I-beams.”J. Struct. Div., ASCE, 104(11), 1787–1798.
9.
Hancock, G. J.(1981). “Distortional buckling of I-beams.”J. Struct. Div., ASCE, 107(2), 355–370.
10.
Hughes, O., and Ma, M.(1996). “Lateral distortional buckling of monosymmetric beams under point load.”J. Engrg. Mech., ASCE, 122(10), 1022–1029.
11.
Jones, R. M. (1975). Mechanics of composite materials. Hemisphere Publishing Corp., New York, N.Y.
12.
Lin, Z. M., Polyzois, D., and Shah, A.(1996). “Stability of thin-walled pultruded structural members by finite element method.”Thin-Walled Struct., 24(1), 1–18.
13.
Ma, M., and Hughes, O.(1996). “Lateral distortional buckling of monosymmetric I-beams under distributed vertical load.”Thin-Walled Struct., 26(2), 123–145.
14.
Malvern, L. E. (1969). Introduction to the mechanics of a continuous medium. Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, N.J.
15.
Mottram, J. T.(1992). “Lateral-torsional buckling of a pultruded I-beam.”Composites, 32(2), 81–92.
16.
Nethercot, D. A., and Rockey, K. C.(1971). “A unified approach to the elastic lateral buckling of beams.”The Struct. Engr., London, U.K., 49(7), 321–330.
17.
Pandey, M. D., Kabir, M. Z., and Sherbourne, A. N.(1995). “Flexural-torsional stability of thin-walled composite I-section beams.”Composites Engrg., 5(3), 321–342.
18.
Qiao, P. (1997). “Analysis and design optimization of fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP) structural beams,” PhD dissertation, West Virginia University, Morgantown, W.Va.
19.
Qiao, P., Davalos, J. F., and Barbero, E. J. (1994). “FRPBEAM: a computer program for analysis and design of FRP beams.”Rep. No. CFC-94-191, Constructed Facilities Center, West Virginia University, Morgantown, W.Wa.
20.
Razzaq, Z., Prabhakaran, R., and Sirjani, M. M. (1996). “Load and resistance factor design (LRFD) approach for reinforced-plastic channel beam buckling.”Composites, Part B: Engrg. J., 27B(3–4), 361–369.
21.
Roberts, T. M.(1981). “Second order strains and instability of thin-walled bars of open cross-section.”Int. J. Mech. Sci., 23(5), 297–306.
22.
Roberts, T. M., and Jhita, P. S.(1983). “Lateral local and distortional buckling of I-beams.”Thin-Walled Struct., 1(4), 289–308.
23.
Turvey, G. J.(1996a). “Effects of load position on the lateral buckling response of pultruded GRP cantilevers—comparisons between theory and experiment.”Composite Struct., 35(1), 33–47.
24.
Turvey, G. J. (1996b). “Lateral buckling tests on rectangular cross-section pultruded GRP cantilever beams.”Composites, Part B: Engrg. J, 27B(1), 35–42.
25.
Turvey, G. J., and Brooks, R. J. (1996). “Lateral buckling tests on pultruded GRP I-section beams with simply-supported simply-supported and clamped-simply supported end conditions.”Proc. of the 1st Int. Conf. on Composites in Infrastructure, Tucson, Ariz., 651–664.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
Copyright © 1997 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Published online: Nov 1, 1997
Published in print: Nov 1997
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.