Pultruded GFRP box beams: State-of-the-art review on constituents and structural behavior

In recent decades, pultruded glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) members including those of box sections have attracted the attention of researchers. Nevertheless, the lack of uniform and consistent material properties, simplified design methods, and practical design codes have so far been the main barrier for field applications. Consequently, this paper highlights the existing knowledge concerning the flexural behavior of pultruded GFRP profiles and their failure modes. In particulate, it reviews the most commonly accepted design expressions and code provisions addressing the flange local buckling of pultruded GFRP box beams as the most likely failure mode. In addition, the material characterization of GFRP sections is described in detail along with the standard test methods to quantify the material characterization of GFRP laminates. It is shown that the critical flange local buckling stresses of pultruded GFRP box beams can be predicted with reliable accuracy using the expressions promulgated by ASCE (1984) (in which the flange plates are considered simply-supported at web-flange junction) and EUR 27666. The expressions stipulated in ASCE (2010) highly overestimates the critical flange local buckling stresses of GFRP box beams resulting in unconservative predictions.