Effect of web perforation on the performance of pultruded GFRP wide-flange section profile in web crippling under end-two-flange loading configuration

Abstract

The present study extensively investigates the performance of GFRP pultruded members in web crippling subjected to end-two-flange (ETF) loading configuration considering wide-flange (WF) section profile with circular perforation. Investigation comprised material characterization experiments as well as web crippling tests conducted on 15 specimens with unperforated and web perforated sections. In order to investigate the influence of perforation size, perforation dimensions were varied in the range of 0.2h to 0.8h (h is the height of web). In comparison to unperforated specimen, the ultimate crippling capacity of perforated specimens with diameters of perforation 0.2h, 0.4h, 0.6h and 0.8h were decreased by 26.0%, 43.2%, 61.6% and 78.3%, respectively. Finite element (FE) studies were also conducted and parametric investigation was performed by utilizing the validated FE models, to assess the influence of N/h and a/h ratios (N is length of bearing and a is perforation diameter) on the ultimate crippling load. Using the results of parametric investigation, strength reduction factor equation was developed for perforated GFRP WF-section profiles under ETF loading and suitability of the equation was examined with reliability analysis.