Experimental study of the web-crippling behavior of pultruded GFRP I-section profiles under localized one-flange loading

This paper presents an experimental study on the web-crippling behavior of pultruded glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) I-section profiles under localized one-flange loading. The study had two objectives: (i) to gain insight into the behavior of profiles under localized one-flange loading, which has not yet been sufficiently investigated, and (ii) to provide comprehensive experimental data for the future development of design methods. A total of 61 specimens were tested, 31 under end-one-flange (EOF) loading and 30 under interior-one-flange (IOF) loading. The test parameters included three bearing lengths (15/40/70 mm) and four profiles. The results showed that the shape and material properties of the profiles had negligible effects on the failure modes and transverse compressive strain distributions. Conversely, the bearing length had a significant impact on the ultimate loads. The IOF ultimate loads were higher than the EOF ones with the shortest bearing length (15 mm), whereas the opposite occurred for the longest bearing length (70 mm); possible reasons for this are discussed.