Web Crippling Behaviour Of Web Perforated Gfrp Wide-Flange Sections Subjected To Interior-Two-Flange Loading Condition

In this paper, an extensive study on the web crippling behaviour of GFRP wide-flange (WF) section profiles with centred web perforation under interior-two-flange (ITF) loading is reported. Experimental investigation included material characterization tests and full scale web crippling experiments performed on 14 specimens with and without web perforations under ITF loading configuration. To examine the effect of web perforation, perforation sizes were varied between 0.2h and 0.8h (h being the web height). Compared to the intact specimens, the average web crippling strength for perforated specimens with web perforation sizes 0.2h, 0.4h 0.6h and 0.8h was reduced by 14.7%, 22.2%, 24.2% and 41.1%, respectively. Numerical investigations were carried out using the finite element (FE) software, Abaqus and based on validated FE models, parametric studies were performed to study the effects of perforation diameter to web height ratio (a/h) and bearing plate length to web height ratio (N/h) on the web crippling strength. Based on the parametric study, web crippling strength reduction factor was proposed and its suitability was checked with reliability analysis.