Simplified approach to estimate the lateral torsional buckling of GFRP channel beams

The present study investigates the lateral torsional buckling behaviour of pultruded glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) simply supported channel beams subjected to uniform bending about their major axis. A parametric study by varying the sectional geometry and span of channel beams is carried out by using ABAQUS software. The accuracy of the FE models was ensured by verifying them against the available results provided in the literature. The effect of geometric nonlinearity, geometric imperfections, and the dependency of finite element mesh on the lateral torsional buckling were carefully considered in the FE model. Lateral torsional buckling (LTB) strengths obtained from the numerical study were compared with the theoretical LTB strengths obtained based on the Eurocode 3 approach for steel sections. The comparison between the numerical strengths and the design procedure proposed in the literature based on Eurocode 3 approach revealed disagreements. Therefore, a simplified improved design procedure is proposed for the safe design strength prediction of pultruded GFRP channel beams. The proposed equation has been provided that might aid the structural engineers in economically designing the pultruded GFRP channel beams in the future.