Bonded sleeve connections for pultruded GFRP tubular members in building construction

Pultruded-GFRP materials show promising potential in replacing traditional construction material for building applications. Prior experimental study on pultruded-GFRP beam to steel column connection system suggests using bonded-sleeve connection can significant improvement in connection stiffness and strength in comparison with traditional steel angle connections. As such, this paper introduces the development of Finite element model for bonded-sleeve connection joining pultruded-GFRP tubular members. The model is developed using node coupling method, paired contact element and pretention element to simulate the adhesive bonding, contact/slip behavior and pretention of the bolts. It is found that the developed FE model is able to accurately reproduce experimentally measured moment-rotation behavior of the testing specimens. In addition, it is clearly visible that the developed FE model can also simulate the failure mechanism and initial yielding position of bonded-sleeve connection observed in the experimental study. As such the developed FE models will be employed for future parametric study to optimize detailing on generalized bonded-sleeve connection system in pultruded applications