Experimental study on the web crippling behavior of pultruded GFRP channel sections

Pultruded glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP) sections see increasing applications in civil constructions. However, due to their inherent pultrusion manufacturing process, the pultruded GFRP sections are susceptible to web crippling failure under concentrated transverse loading. This paper presents a preliminary experimental investigation on the web crippling behaviour of pultruded GFRP channel sections. Three channel sections were tested under two transverse loading conditions, namely end-two-flange (ETF) and interior-two-flange (ITF). Two failure modes were observed including web buckling and failure at web-flange junction. It was found that the web crippling capacities were not affected by the loading conditions when the failure was at the web-flange junction. When the failure was web buckling, the web crippling capacities were more related to the web slenderness. This paper contributes to enrich the experimental database of web crippling of pultruded GFRP channel sections.