A
large-scale research program is currently undertaken at the Department of Civil
Engineering, University of
Sherbrooke, Canada, to assess the general behaviour
of light weight, glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP), pole structures. A
finite
element (FE) program was used to perform a nonlinear numerical analysis
to model the static flexural behaviour of GFRP poles. The results of the FE
analysis are compared to the
experimental results conducted on full scale
identical GFRP poles. A parametric study on 12 m (40 ft) GFRP poles was carried
out to show the effect of fibre orientation and the number of circumferential
layers on the load carrying capacity and deflection behaviour. The results show
a good agreement between the FE analysis and the experimental data. The
theoretical model is used to evaluate the performance of a GFRP pole and to
determine the optimum cross section dimensions at three different zones along
the height of the GFRP pole structure.