Lateral buckling of pultruded FRP beams

Abstract: A mechanical model capable of taking into account the contribution of shear deformation on the lateral buckling behavior of open cross-sections pultruded FRP beams is presented. The total torsional rotation is divided into two parts: the first one, associated with axial warping and negligible shearing strains, the second one, associated entirely with shear strains. Through this approach it is therefore possible to consider with good approximation the shear strains, which are neglected by the classical Vlasov theory. The procedure is validated by comparing the results obtained via FEM with some numerical results available in literature. The effect of the normal to shear modulus ratio on the lateral buckling load is also investigated. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]