Numerical Modelling of Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) Cross Arm

Abstract

Composites are not isotropic like their metal counterparts, e.g. steel and aluminum, as they are made of two distinctive phases known as the matrix and the reinforcing phases. In addition, weight, fiber direction, fiber composition and even the manufacturing process are all critical factors in determining the strength, stiffness and the behaviour of a composite member. All of that create more challenging designing and manufacturing approaches. This paper shows how to model a GFRP cross arm using SOLIDWORKS to create the 3D geometrical model because it has an intuitive and easy to use user interface, and ANSYS to create the numerical model and the analysis for its great and comprehensive capabilities in the finite element analysis. The cross arm was found to be safe against the failure modes of fiber, matrix, in-plane shear, out-of-plane shear and delamination under all load cases which satisfies the ultimate limit state requirements but the concern was on the serviceability limit state which had a deflection of 34 mm.