Buckling Behavior of Pultruded Monosymmetric Members

Abstract

Pultruded fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) structural members have been used in various civil engineering applications. T-shapes are commonly used for chord members in trusses and for bracing members. In these cases, T-shapes are mainly subjected to axial forces, and stability of a member is one of the major concerns in the design. Due to the monosymmetry existing in the cross-section of T-shapes, T-shapes are likely to buckle in a flexural-torsional mode. An energy solution, using the Ritz method, to the buckling problem of a pulturuded T-shape under uniform compression is derived based on a composite thin-walled beam theory developed by Bauld and Tzeng. The solution accounts for the bending-twisting and bending-extension coupling effects. The derived energy solutions are compared to the experimental results of buckling tests conducted on seventeen pultruded T-shapes. It is found that the ratios of the experimental to analytical results are in the range of 1.00 to 1.32.