Fourth International Conference on FRP Composites in Civil Engineering (CICE2008)

22-24July 2008, Zurich, Switzerland

Design and construction of a temporary structure composed by

FRP pultruded profiles
A. Dicuonzo, F. Laudiero, F. Minghini, and N. Tullini
Department of Engineering, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy

F. Maceri
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy

ABSTRACT: A temporary FRP modular structure was designed for an expo fair stand to be
erected in the campus of Tor Vergata Rome University. GFRP on the shelf pultruded profiles
were adopted. The structure is constituted by 6 /12 meter truss beams connected to columns
with pin joint constraints. The beam module is represented by a king-post truss structure having
6 meter span and self weight of about 1 kN. Chords and web element of each module are builtup members composed by two back-to-back angle- and C-shaped profiles, respectively. Twin
profiles are glued together by means of GFRP flat or box lacings. The heel gussets, reinforced
by external carbon sheets, provide for a hinged connection between truss beams and columns or
possible adjacent moduli. Hence, different plane frame schemes can be easily obtained. In the
orthogonal direction, the roof is spanned by 6 meters box-section purlins supporting a PVC tent.
Steel strands provide for anchoring and lateral bracing. The paper describes the overall design
paying attention to load conditions, (finite element) structural analysis, ULS member verification and construction details.
1 INTRODUCTION
Modularity may turn out to be very useful in structural design with fiber-reinforced polymer
(FRP) components, giving significant advantages in assembling, transporting and launching
large parts of structures. The paper describes a temporary modular structure entirely composed
by Glass-FRP pultruded profiles, designed for an expo fair stand to be erected in the campus of
Tor Vergata Rome University. The king-post truss modules and the built-up columns were designed to obtain different plane frame schemes (Figs. 1,2). Perfectly hinged connection were
provided at the beam-column joints, by using GFRP pultruded gussets, reinforced with external
carbon sheets.
Construction details of truss module and columns are reported in the following. For the buckling analysis, a finite element model was implemented making use of 4-node orthotropic shell
elements. Verifications of pultruded profiles at ULS were conducted according to the recent
Italian guidelines CNR-DT 205/2007. Tensile and pin-bearing strength of FRP composite gussets were experimentally evaluated and the most significant findings are briefly described.
2 TRUSS MODULE AND BUILT-UP COLUMNS
GFRP on the shelf pultruded profiles produced by Creative Pultrusions, Inc. (2000) were
adopted. The 6 meter span truss module is depicted in Figure 3a. Top and bottom chords were
obtained by lacing two equal leg angle shapes (L101.6 9.53 mm) by means of 0.55 m spaced
box-section profiles (Fig. 3b), whereas the web element is constituted by two back-to-back Csection members (C127 35.05 6.35 mm) externally bonded to the chords (Fig. 3f). The heel
gussets (Fig. 3c,h), having thickness t of about 10 mm and presenting a 33 mm diameter hole
for the pin connection with columns, were externally laminated with 45 carbon plies. Adhe-

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sive connections were chosen between chords and gussets, with the addition of auxiliary M12
bolts to reduce the peeling stresses. Hence, bolts were tightened with a torque of about 25 Nm to
approximate a contact pressure of 35 MPa between FRP plates and washers (EN ISO 7091:
2000). In particular, at the truss module ends, the heel gussets were alternatively bonded to inner
or outer faces of the built-up chords, so as to permit the connection of columns with both 6 meter and 12 meter truss beams (Fig. 1). Self weight of 6 meter truss module is about 1 kN.
A prototype of 3 meter high built-up columns is shown in Figure 4. Two back-to-back Cshaped profiles (C203.2 55.63 9.53 mm) with 0.50 m spaced box-section lacings were
adopted. At one end, four pultruded gussets (t = 9.53 mm) were bonded to the webs of the builtup columns (Fig. 4f).
3 DESIGN OF THE 12 METER SPAN TRUSS STRUCTURE
The truss beam is constituted by two 6 meter modules (Fig. 2) pinned at the crown and hold by
a horizontal tie rod (Fig. 5). Steel strands provide for lateral bracing. Finally a 6 meter spacing
was assumed to let box-section purlins have length of commercial profiles.
3.1 Numerical beam-model for linear elastic analysis
A finite element beam model (Straus7 2004) was implemented to analyze the 12 meter span
truss structure. In particular, Timoshenko-beam elements and truss elements were adopted for
pultruded profiles and steel strands respectively.

Figure 1. Possible plane frame schemes of the modular system.

Figure 2. GFRP 12 meter span two-module structure installed in the Structural Engineering Laboratory at
the University of Ferrara.

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2 L101.6x101.6x9.53 mm

2 L101.6x101.6x9.53 mm

see
Figs. b, c

2 L101.6x101.6x9.53 mm

see
Figs. d, e, f

2 C127x35.05x6.35 mm

see
Figs. g, h

a
top chord
top chord

top chord

web element
box lacing

GFRP gussets

GFRP gussets

flat lacing
GFRP gussets

box lacing
flat lacing

box lacing
bottom chord

bottom chord

bottom chord

1-1

2-2

3-3

h
f

Figure 3. Truss module of the pultruded structure designed. Fig. a: frontal view. Figs. b, d, g: sections 1-1,
2-2 and 3-3. Figs. c, e, f, h: construction details.

The laminated gussets, assumed to be rigid in their own planes, were modeled resorting to 1-D
links allowing for a perfectly hinged connection between beams and columns.
Characteristic values of longitudinal and transverse shear elastic moduli E and G of pultruded
members were deduced from the mean values reported by the manufacturer, by adopting a coefficient of variation equal to 0.2 (Mottram & Turvey 2003). Hence, E = 12.3 GPa and G = 1.9
GPa for C-shaped profiles, and E = 12.3 GPa and G = 2.2 GPa for angle-shaped profiles were
assumed. As a matter of fact, self weight corresponds to a half of the total vertical loads; nevertheless creep deformations were referred to a (continuous) three month application of the total
vertical load. Hence, reduced elastic moduli Ered = 0.85 E and Gred = 0.65 G (Scott & Zureick
1998, Shao & Shanmugam 2004, Bottoni et al. 2008) were adopted.

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1
33

33

2 C 203.2x55.63x9.53 mm
see

1 Fig. c, f

see
Fig. d

see
Fig. e

3
13
13

b
GFRP gussets
box lacing

box lacing

1-1
c

3-3

2-2
d

f
Figure 4. Built-up column of the pultruded structure designed. Fig. a: frontal view. Fig. b: side view. Figs.
c e: sections 1-1, 2-2 and 3-3. Fig. f: construction detail.

Figure 5. Details of the connections between horizontal tie rod and truss modules.

Self weight of purlins (30 N/m) and PVC tent (10 N/m2) was reduced to concentrated forces
( 235 N) acting at the purling locations. In addition, vertical forces (500 N or 250 N) were applied corresponding to a conventional snow load of 100 N/m2 (EN 13782:2006). Moreover, the
wind action corresponding to a recurrence interval of 5 years (EN 1991-1-6:2005) was accounted for. In particular, assuming negative and positive internal pressure coefficient maximizes bending moments in the windward column and suction action on the top chords respectively. Instructions CNR-DT 205/2007 do not suggest any displacement limit values for this

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type of structure at Serviceability Limit States. In any case, if the reduced moduli Ered and Gred
are adopted, the crown vertical displacement under sustained loads turns out to be 1/700 of the
truss span.
3.2 Strength verification
The recent Italian guidelines CNR-DT 205/2007 were adopted. Due to both coefficient of variation and material brittleness, the material safety factor f = 1.50 was obtained. As a matter of
fact, for the ULS, the stress level did not exceed 41% of the material strength.
3.3 3D numerical model for buckling analysis
As is known, the structural performance of FRP profiles is often ruled by buckling phenomena.
In order to detect possible local-global instability interaction, a 3D numerical model (Fig. 6a)
was implemented using 4-node isoparametric orthotropic shell elements (Straus7 2004). Both
initial and reduced elastic moduli were adopted. Correspondingly, multipliers of about 1.77 and

Figure 6. Numerical model of the structure (shell elements 25 mm 25 mm). Fig. a: detail of back-toback angle profiles and heel gussets. Fig. b: out-of-plane instability mode shape.

18
16
14
Load [kN]

12
10
8
6
4
2
0
0.0

1.0

2.0

3.0

4.0

5.0

6.0

7.0

8.0

Displacement [mm]

Figure 7. Pin-bearing test on GFRP pultruded plates in crosswise direction. Fig. a: typical failure mechanism. Fig. b: comparison between plates with ( ) and without ( ) external carbon reinforcement.

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1.49 were obtained from a linear buckling analysis of the structure subjected to ULS vertical
loads. The first critical shape is characterized by prevailing flexural-torsional instability of compressed chords (Fig. 6b), with a negligible influence of local-global interaction. A geometric
nonlinear analysis with initial imperfection substantially confirmed this result.
4 EXPERIMENTAL CHARACTERIZATION OF GFRP PULTRUDED PLATES
REINFORCED WITH EXTERNAL 45 CARBON PLIES
To verify the effectiveness of external carbon reinforcement of heel gussets in terms of stiffness
and strength, an experimental program was developed (EN 13706-2:2002). In particular, reinforced GFRP pultruded plates showed an increase of tensile strength in lengthwise and crosswise directions of about 10% and 30%, respectively. As for the pin-bearing tests, strength increments of about 15% were observed. Moreover, confinement exerted by carbon reinforcement
gave rise to unexpected ductile behaviour, especially in crosswise direction (Fig. 7).
5 CONCLUSIONS
Effectiveness of temporary GFRP pultruded structures was shown. Prototypes of the designed
structures were assembled in the Structural Engineering Laboratories of Ferrara and Tor Vergata
Rome Universities to be subjected to experimental tests.
6 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The present investigation was developed in the framework of two coordinated Projects: the Italian Research Program no. 2005089782 coordinated by Prof. Franco Maceri from University of
Rome Tor Vergata and the Research Program FAR 2007 of the University of Ferrara. Financial
support of the Italian Ministry of University and Research, and of the University of Ferrara is
gratefully acknowledged.
REFERENCES
Bottoni, M., Mazzotti, C., and Savoia, M., 2008. A finite element model for linear viscoelastic behaviour
of pultruded thin-walled beams under general loadings. Int. J. Solids Struct. 45: 770-793
CNR-DT 205/2007. Guide for the Design and Construction of Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Composite
Structures composed by Thin-Walled Pultruded Profiles. Italian National Research Council.
EN 13706-2:2002. Reinforced Plastics Composites Specifications for Pultruded Profiles Part 2 - Method
of Test and General Requirements.
EN 1991-1-6:2005. General Actions - Actions During Execution.
EN 13782:2006. Temporary Structures Tents Safety.
EN ISO 7091: 2000. Plain washers Normal series Product grade C.
Mottram, J. T., and Turvey, G. J. 2003. Physical test data for the appraisal of design procedures for bolted
joints in pultruded FRP structural shapes and systems. Prog. Struct. Engng Mater. 5: 195-222.
Scott, D., and Zureick, A. 1998. Creep behavior of pultruded materials. J. Comp. sci. and Tech. 58:136169.
Shao, Y., and Shanmugam, J. 2004. Deflection creep of pultruded composite sheet piling. J. of
Composites for Constr., 8: 471-479.
STRAUS7 . 2004. Theoretical manual theoretical background to the Straus7 finite element analysis
system, first edition.

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