Design and analysis of a composite beam for infrastructure applications - Part III: experimental results and nonlinear FE analysis

Abstract

Using the analytical approaches developed, the cross section of the new fibre composite beam described in the prequels to this paper is designed in order to avert secondary failure modes. A series of specimens have been built and put through a thorough testing regime to establish the performance of the beam. To gain confidence in the analytical models and achieve further understanding of the beam behaviour, a rigorous nonlinear finite element analysis is also presented. It was found that the analytical model agreed relatively well with the experiment and the FE analysis, thus validating the underlying assumptions.