Pultruded shapes are widely being used in many engineering infrastructural applicationsincluding bridges, walkways, decks, etc. due to their relatively low manufacturing cost. Thepresent paper discusses mechanical property characterization and finite element analysis ofpultruded glass fiber reinforced I-beam under bending. The goal is to predict failure of thepultruded composite I-beam structure by coupling a small number of standard mechanical testswith finite element simulations. A complete microstructure characterization was performed bysectioning a sample using resin burn off method. Various micromechanics models were used topredict the material properties of each layer for the finite element analysis. Model prediction wasverified with experimental data. It was found that the finite element prediction and experimentalresults of the load-deflection behavior agreed very well, within 5%. It was predicted that thefailure initiated in the form of a crack about the quarter-span location of the I-beam due to lowshear stress of the roving layer which eventually propagated along the length of the beamresulting in complete failure.
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