An investigation of material characterization of pultruded FRP H- and I-beams

Abstract

This study presents the material characterization of pultruded fiber-reinforced polymer beams of different sizes using experimental and analytical methods. Various tests were performed to determine the material properties such as Young's and shear moduli using tensile and bending tests of coupons and beams. The stiffness measured from the four-point bending test of both beams is in close agreement with analytical methods. It is shown that the numerically obtained flexural response of the beam using ABAQUS software with material properties obtained from the four-point beam bending test is close to the experimental response.