PULTRUDED REINFORCED-PLASTICS FOR CIVIL ENGINEERING STRUCTURAL APPLICATIONS

This paper describes the development and applications of pultruded fiber-reinforced plastics used as primary load-bearing structural components by Composite Technology, Inc. (CTI). The pultruded RP profiled sections were designed specially for composite materials to compete with and replace conventional materials. These sections were made competitive by tailoring the geometry, advantageously placing fibers, and controlling the load path to overcome stiffness and engineering limitations, erection costs, and life-cycle costs. As with conventional structural materials such as steel and prestressed concrete, RP has definite predictable and measurable performance characteristics. Extensive laboratory, university, and field testing for long-term effects of deflection, bending, shear, buckling, and temperature has enabled CTI to simulate and evaluate the performance, projected through the warranteed period of twenty-five years. As a result of the test program, these RP structural components maximize the performance potential of both RP and the pultrusion process for civil engineering structural applications. They are currently used as structural frames, beams, columns, girts, purlins, and lintels in industrial buildings, electromagnetic interference laboratory enclosures, pre-engineered buildings, and cooling towers.