Transverse Fracture Behavior of Pultruded GFRP Materials in Tension and Compression at Elevated Temperature
摘要
Pultruded glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) profiles are sensitive to high temperatures, including those encountered in outdoor service conditions. Understanding their fracture properties at elevated temperature allows for more accurate advanced finite element (FE) simulations of damage initiation and progression in various problems involving pultruded GFRP structures at elevated temperature. However, the fracture behavior of these materials at elevated temperature has not yet been experimentally investigated. In this context, this paper presents an experimental study on the transverse in-plane translaminar fracture behavior of a pultruded GFRP material using wide compact tension (WCT) and compact compression (CC) tests. Two temperatures were considered, namely room temperature and 80 °C. Failure modes, load-displacement curves, crack growth resistance curves (i.e., R curves) and methodologies for determining tensile and compressive fracture toughness are first presented and discussed. Next, the tensile fracture toughness (i.e., \( {G}_2^{+} \) ) are determined from the R curves, whereas the compressive fracture toughness (i.e., \( {G}_2^{-} \) ) are determined through a numerical calibration process associated to a bilinear cohesive law. The results show that both tensile and compressive fracture toughness are significantly influenced by elevated temperature, retaining approximately 46% and 58% of their respective room-temperature values at 80 °C, respectively.