The Design and Analysis of Internally Stiffened GFRP Tubular Decks—A Sustainable Solution

Yeou-Fong Li, Habib Armel Meda and Walter Chen
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Yeou-Fong Li: Department of Civil Engineering, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei 106, Taiwan
Habib Armel Meda: Department of Civil Engineering, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei 106, Taiwan
Walter Chen: Department of Civil Engineering, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei 106, Taiwan

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 12, 1-15

Abstract: The aim of this paper was to find an optimal stiffener configuration of thin-wall tubular panels made by glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) composite material, which is a low carbon emission, low life cycle cost, and sustainable material. Finite-element analysis (FEA) was used to investigate the flexural and torsional stiffness of various internally stiffened sections of thin-wall GFRP decks. These decks consist of internally stiffened tubular profiles laid side by side and bonded together with epoxy to ensure the panel acts as an assembly. Three-dimensional models of the seven proposed decks were assembled with tubular profiles of different stiffener patterns. First, the non-stiffened tube profile was tested experimentally to validate the parameters used in the subsequent numerical analysis. Then, the finite element software, ANSYS, was used to simulate the flexural and torsional behavior of the decks with different stiffener patterns under bending and torsional loads. The decks with stiffener patterns such as “O” type, “V” type, and “D” type were found to be the most effective in bending. For torsion, there was a distinct tendency for deck panels with closed shaped stiffener patterns to perform better than their counterparts. Overall, the “O” type deck panel was an optimal stiffener configuration.

Keywords: tubular decks; fiber reinforced polymer; stiffened profile; low carbon emission; low life cycle cost (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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