Durability performance of pultruded GFRP Box beams subjected to natural conditioning

Pultruded glass-fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) profiles have long being used in electric poles of overhead lines. Their durability performance under different environmental conditions; however, is not yet well understood. The current study focuses on the degradation of pultruded GFRP cross-arms after being exposed to the combined effect of sustained service load and natural environment including Ultra violet (UV) exposure for 10 years. The experimental investigation is conducted using both the coupon and full-scale specimens. The deteriorating effects of such conditioning are assessed by comparing the mechanical responses of aged and un-aged coupons under tension, compression, bending, and interlaminar shear. The conditioning could not affect the overall behavior of stress-strain curves, as the full-scale flexural testing of both the aged and un-aged cross-arms show a linear behavior up to failure. The variation of the mechanical properties was not considerable, suggesting evidence of post-curing phenomena and confirming that UV radiation affects essentially the outermost layers of GFRP profiles.

Durability performance of pultruded GFRP Box beams subjected to natural conditioning Keywords:

GFRP profiles , Service load , Natural weathering , Durability , Coupon tests , Full-scale specimens.