Flexural stability of pultruded GFRP I-sections

The present research studied the flexure behaviour of pGFRP I-shaped members having a variety of section geometries in order to identify the interaction between local flange and lateral torsional buckling behaviours. The interaction between buckling modes was shown to significantly affect moment capacity in the practical structural application space of these members. An experimental program is reported and contrasted with analytical (plate theory) and computational (finite strip method) analyses as well as with extant code/standard promulgated design equations. Extant American and European standards are shown to be generally non-conservative although not uniformly so, indicating a need for revised design approaches to achieve uniform reliability.