Buckling of woven GFRP cylinders under concentric and eccentric compression

The experimental behaviour of laminated glass fibre-reinforced plastic (GFRP) cylinders under compression and bending is examined in this paper. The laminates are of type ʹRovimat 1200ʹ consisting of woven glass fibre roving, with a chopped mat on one side, within a polyester resin matrix. Two and three-ply cylinders with various orthogonal orientations were considered, for which the nominal radius-to-thickness ratio was about 108 and 72. respectively. Use was made of an automated laser scanning system for measuring geometric imperfections and progressive buckling deformations of the models. Following a description of the specimen and loading details, the results of experiments on ten models are presented. The results include thickness and imperfection mapping, displacement and load measurements as well as important observations regarding the failure mode and overall behaviour of each model. The findings highlight the effects of laminate construction and loading eccentricity on the buckling strength of cylinders within the range examined. Both elastic buckling and material-dominated failure modes were observed, depending on the slenderness and load type considered. The tests also provide detailed experimental data, which are necessary for further analytical and design studies. © 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.