Numerical study and design rule for axial capacities of pultruded GFRP hollow columns

Abstract

This article reports the finite-element (FE) investigation on the axial capacities of pultruded fibre reinforced polymer (PFRP) composite hollow columns. The non-linear finite-element model (FEM) was developed by using ANSYS package for glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP) composite hollow columns, which included geometric and initial geometric imperfections. The developed FEMs were verfied against an experimental results available in the literature for GFRP hollow columns. The validated FEMs were used to carry out the parametric study comprising 92 FE models to investigate the effect of different geometries, plate slenderness and length of members on the axial capacities of GFRP pultruded hollow columns. The axial capacities predicted by the nonlinear FE analysis were also used to examine the accuracy/applicability of the current design guidelines for GFRP pultruded hollow columns available in the literature. Based on the comparison of results the merits and demerits of existing design rules in literature are discussed. In addition, this article proposed a simplified design approach over the existing strength equations to predict the axial capacity of GFRP pultruded hollow columns. The proposed design equations have closely predict the axial capacities of GFRP pultruded hollow columns, being only 9% conservative to the FEA strengths.