Buckling Analysis of Pultruded Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) Angle Sections

Glass fiber reinforced polymers (GFRP), with their advantage of corrosion resistance, have potential to be used as structural members in civil engineering constructions. Pultruded GFRP angle section trusses could be used instead of steel sections in remote areas and in areas prone to corrosion. The objective of this paper is to study the strength of GFRP angle sections under concentric axial load. Glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) made of E-glass and Isophthalic polyester resin and manufactured by pultrusion process was used for the experimental study. Two GFRP angle sections of size 50 x 50 x 6 mm and 50 x 50 x 4 mm and lengths 500 mm, 750 mm, and 1000 mm were chosen for the study. Further, finite experimental element analysis of the GFRP angle sections was done using ANSYS software and validated with the experimental results. The validated FE model was used for parametric studies varying the slenderness ratio and flange width to thickness ratio (b/t) ratio. It was observed that length of the specimen and thickness influenced the buckling load and buckling mode. An increase in b/t ratio from 8.3 to 12.5 decreases the load carrying capacity by almost 60% at a slenderness ratio of 50.