Bonded sleeve connections for pultruded GFRP tubular members in building construction

Pultruded GFRP materials showed promising potential in replacing traditional construction materials for building applications. Prior experimental study on pultruded GFRP beam-to-steel column specimens suggested that using bonded sleeve connection significantly improved connection stiffness and strength in comparison with traditional steel angle connection. As such, this paper introduces the development of Finite Element (FE) model for bonded sleeve connection. The FE model was developed using node coupling method, paired contact elements and pretention elements to simulate the adhesive bonding, contact/slip behavior and pretention of the bolts. It was found that the developed FE model was able to accurately reproduce experimentally measured moment-rotation behavior of the testing specimens. In addition, it was clearly visible that the developed FE model can also simulate the failure mechanism and initial yielding position of bonded sleeve connection observed in the experimental study. Thus, the developed FE model will be employed for future parametric study to optimize detailing on generalized bonded sleeve connection system in pultruded applications.