Experimental analysis of spliced joint connections in GFRP short column

Abstract

This paper describes an experimental program developed to investigate non-bearing spliced composite short column connections made of Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) that are subjected to axial loading. This study provides aspects such as the load-bearing capacity of the connection, failure modes, load distribution in the connection, displacement in the joint, stiffness, and compressive strength. The design of the joint in this study that connects two 350mm GFRP H-sections to form a short column connection is based on euro codes BS EN 1990 and BS EN 1991, which are used to design steel splicing connections for beams and columns. Four design specifications models are made depending on the positioning of the cover plates in the inner flange, outer flange, and web region of the H-sections to examine the requirement of a specific cover plate, and the H-sections are bolted to each other using M8 8.8 grade steel bolts. The samples tested in this study indicated a dominant failure in the flange region, with model-4 providing 92.83% compressive strength when compared to an uncut GFRP short column.