| Glass Fibre Reinforced Plastic (GFRP) composite structures are increasingly used in waterfront and marine environments due to their corrosion resistance. While the GFRP materials have demonstrated excellent tensile capacities, they also present quite low elastic moduli compared to steel. Consequently, local buckling and excessive deflection are always performance-limiting factors in design of thin-walled composite structures that use low-tech FRP.; The research reported herein is focused on the buckling and deformation analysis of a pultruded sheet pile wall subjected to uniformly distributed load and harsh environmental exposures. Prior to structural analysis, material properties of the composite sheet pile were determined by coupon tests. A finite element ABAQUS model was introduced and validated by comparison with full-scale experimental test data. The prebuckling, buckling and postbuckling behaviour were evaluated and the failure mode identified. In order to enhance the load bearing capacity and reduce the deflection of the sheet pile panel, new profiles were proposed: the purpose was to increase the local buckling load and enhance the stiffness. Adding stiffeners at the junctions between the different section plates appeared to be efficient.; In order to study the durability of the FRP sheet piles under different service conditions, the effects of five environmental exposures on the structural performances were studied: they were freezing, freezing/thawing, wet environment, wet and freezing and wet and freezing/thawing conditions. The elastic moduli were found to be unaffected whereas reductions in the strength were observed. As a result, there was no noticeable change in the buckling load and deflection but significant decrease in ultimate failure load. Maximum loss in load capacity due to moisture uptake and freeze/thaw cycles was found to be about 23%. |
