Pre-buckling imperfection sensitivity of pultruded FRP profiles

This paper presents a geometrically non-linear one-dimensional model suitable for analyzing thin-walled fiber-reinforced polymer profiles, which accounts for the effect of manufacturing imperfections. The kinematic model is developed under the hypotheses of small strains and moderately large rotations of the cross-sections, and is able to take into consideration the contribution of shear strains and the effects related to warping displacements. The aim of the study is to develop a proper tool to analyze the pre-buckling behavior of such beams, since current approaches based on two-dimensional finite element method analysis demand significant computational efforts to be applied to real structures. The numerical results underline the effectiveness of the proposed mechanical model in analyzing case studies of technical interest in Civil Engineering, and the relevant influence of geometrical imperfections on the structural performance of FRP components with regard to serviceability design requirements. (C) 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd.