Publication: NUMERICAL MODELLING OF GLASS FIBER REINFORCED POLYMER (GFRP) CROSSARM IN TRANSMISSION TOWER SUBJECTED TO STATIC LOADING
Date
2020-09
Authors
Afiqah Nadhirah Rosli
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Abstract
Nowadays, the utilization of glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) composite is being
largely used in different structures. The knowledge to understand the mechanical
behavior of fiberglass are extremely essential in the design and analysis of composite
fiberglass. Composite materials have the ability to reduce cost especially in
construction and maintenance. In Malaysia, glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP)
was utilized as composite material in crossarm of transmission tower. However, due
to some failure of GFRP crossarm, an investigation was carried out to analyze the
behaviour of GFRP crossarm. Experimental testing was conducted to find out the
physical and mechanical properties of existing crossarm. The results indicated that
Brand A crossarm has display a superior performance in terms of physical and
mechanical properties if compared with the other brands of crossarm. Maximum load
capacity of GFRP was investigated by using full scale testing and numerical
modelling. Numerical modelling using ANSYS software was used throughout this
study to analyze the behavior of GFRP crossarm subjected to static loading. The
numerical analysis then was compared with experimental testing as to validate the
experimental results. It was discovered that percentage difference between
experimental and numerical analysis results for all brands of GFRP crossarm falls
below 5%. During the experimental testing, the Brand A sample was not failed even
the load has been exceed until 80 kN which proves that Brand A sample has the ability
to withstand highest working load. Parametric study for determining Factor of Safety
(FOS) of GFRP crossarm for normal and broken wire condition were investigated.
Strength over stress calculation was used to calculate the FOS. The result indicated
that the Brand A crossarm was able to support up to 5 times Working Load (WL) for
normal condition with minimum FOS of 1.08 for normal condition. Meanwhile, Brand
A crossarm also able to support up to 3 times Working Load (WL) with minimum FOS
of 1.10 in broken wire condition. Brand A have the highest factor of safety among all
brand of crossarm. Based on depth understanding of the behaviour of GFRP crossarm,
Brand A crossarm showed a high potential to utilize as composite material in crossarm
of transmission tower that have a high mechanical and physical properties, high
maximum load capacity and high factor of safety.
Description
Keywords
glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) , STATIC LOADING