Effect of Flexural Static Load on the Strength of GFRP Gratings

Abstract

– The usage of steel in offshore deep water area contributes to the massive load of the offshore platform which will lead to the massive operational cost. Therefore, the reduction of weight of platform is the major issue that need to be tackled properly. The great improvement in strength to weight ratio compare to steel and high resistivity to corrosion makes Glass Fibre Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) grating preferable. GFRP gratings are normally made of two types of processes which are moulded and pultruded and it is usually consists of glass fibre and bonding matrixes of vinyl ester (VE), polyester (PE), or phenolic (PHE). However there is still doubt on GFRP grating application for offshore due to no consensus guidelines for the design of GFRP grating and there are many several types of GFRP grating available to be chosen. This paper presenting the study on two types of GFRP grating strength with variation of bonding matrixes under flexural static load. A total of six specimens of GFRP grating which consist of 1 each of molded vinyl ester, molded polyester, molded phenolic, pultruded vinyl ester, pultruded polyester and pultruded phenolic were tested to failure in flexure. The main parameters concerns in this study are 1) max load vs. mid-span deflection and 2) failure mode of the specimens.