| Wood composite poles are new engineered products with polygonal shapes and bonded with synthetic resins. The poles have multiple advantages over the solid wood poles and are a promising solid pole substitute in power transmission, telecommunication, and cable TV services. The use of composite poles may reduce the cost both in materials and manipulation, and facilitate installation and treatment. It is necessary to evaluate the factors that affect their properties and construct theoretical and analytical models to predict these properties.; Experiments were conducted to investigate strip thickness and strip number effects on the flexural properties and shear stress of wood composite poles. Small-size (diameter = 7.6 cm (3 in), length = 1.16 m (46 in)) and full size poles (diameter = 10.2 cm (4 in), length = 6 m (20 ft)) were manufactured for this purpose. Four strip thickness levels and three strip number levels for the small-size poles, and three thickness levels and two strip number levels for full-size poles were chosen as experimental variables. The lumber was cut into strips, which were bonded with resin in molds, and the resulting poles were evaluated in a cantilever test. Results show that the effects of strip thickness were negative on glue-line shear and positive on the shear at poles' clamped ends. But thickness had little effects on maximum bending stress of the small-size poles and Young's modulus of both full- and small-size poles. With the increase of number of strips, Young's modulus of poles was increased. Number of strips had little effects on the maximum bending stress and glue-line shear of small-size poles.; A theoretical analysis was carried out to study the deflection and stress of composite poles. Governing differential equations were derived from high-order differential equations based on the principle of minimum potential energy theorem. Transverse shear and body force were included in the model. Investigations were also carried out to find glue-line effects on the stress and deflection analyses of composite poles. The analytical solution is modeled with the finite element analysis using ANSYS. Both theoretical and analytical solutions were verified by the experimental data. |
