Journal
COMPOSITE STRUCTURES
Volume 133, Issue -, Pages 986-996Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.compstruct.2015.07.120
Keywords
FRP; Pultrusion; Space frames; Joints; Second order effect; Initial imperfection
Categories
Funding
- Australian Research Council
- Monash University
Ask authors/readers for more resources
A space frame structure assembled by pultruded circular hollow section (CHS) GFRP members is presented. This large-scale structure was built with the span length of 8 m, width of 1.6 m and depth of 1.13 m, but weighing only 773 kgf. The structural details and design considerations are developed for potential pedestrian bridge applications and may be further extended for roof structures with pedestrian activity. Experiments were conducted under three-point bending to understand the structural stiffness, load-carrying capacity, and failure modes. The structure showed satisfactory overall stiffness and load-carrying capacity in terms of potential pedestrian bridge applications. It was further found that the second order bending of critical compressive members might cause large nonlinear deformation of the overall structure. This is because bending of the critical compressive members resulted in a decrease in structural stiffness, with maintenance of the load applied and increase of deformation until the ultimate material failure. The structural behavior can be well described by FE modeling considering realistic initial imperfections such as out-of straightness, eccentricity of members, and additional eccentric compressive forces. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available