[TowerTalk] Solid Al vs Solid fiberglass ?

Jim Thomson jim.thom at telus.net
Sun Jan 22 18:06:23 EST 2017


Which is stronger,  1 inch  6061-T6  solid rod...... or  1 inch solid fiberglass rod ?
I know what the tensile + yield  strength is on 6061-T6...... but the typ solid fiberglass rod  gets a bit tricky. 
Extrapolating from metric to queens english, it appears that solid fiberglass rod  has a typ tensile strength
of  100 ksi, and a yield strength of 88 ksi.     I find this real hard to believe,  but I have zero knowledge of the
typ solid fiberglass rods sold  for insulators for yagis and ants.  

6061-T6  is typ listed as 48 ksi for tensile , and  39-40 ksi for yield.

I have an application where  I have to either short out the oem 1 inch solid fiberglass rod, or  replace it with solid 1 inch 6061-T6 rod,
and this is way out on each ele half, like 200 inchs  out from the center...with another 204 inchs of tapered al tubing beyond each insulator. 
If the fiberglass is stronger, I might just short it out with an Al strap. 

If I knew the aprx yield strength of the solid fiberglass, then I could plug the numbers into  the  dx eng mech software. 

Jim   VE7RF   


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