Spring-in experimental evaluation of L-shaped pultruded profiles

Abstract

Abstract Currently pultruded profiles are widely applied as structural elements in different areas due to their high strength, low weight, improved corrosion and fatigue resistance properties. Nevertheless, production of pultruded elements presents challenging aspects related to the peculiarities of pultrusion manufacturing process. Indeed, produced profiles exhibit shape deformations immediately after curing such as spring-in and warpage. These manufacturing induced shape distortions evidence time evolution behavior. This paper presents a seven months long experimental investigation of time-dependent distortion evolution of pultruded L-shaped profiles.