Buckling of woven GFRP cylinders under concentric and eccentric compression

摘要

The experimental behavior of ammoniated glass fibre-reinforced plastic (GFRP) cylinders under compression and bending is examined in this paper. The laminates are of type `Rovimat 1200' consisting of woven glass fibre roving, with a chopped mat on one side, within a polyester resin matrix. Two and three-ply cylinders with various orthogonal orientations were considered, for which the nominal radius-to-thickness ratio was about 108 and 72, respectively. Use was made of an automated assure scanning system for measuring geometric imperfections and progressive buckling deformations of the modes. Following a description of the specimen and loading details, the results of experiments on ten modes are presented. The results include thickness and imperfection mapping, displacement and load measurements as well as important observations regarding the failure mode and overall behavior of each model. The findings highlight the effects of laminate constructor and loading eccentricity on the buckling strength of cylinders within the range examined. Both elastic buckling and material-dominated failure modes were observed, depending on the slenderness and load type considered. The test also provide detailed experimental data, which are necessary for further analytical and design studies.