[TowerTalk] Solid Al vs Solid fiberglass ?

[john at kk9a.com]

That is a good question. There are different grades of fiberglass, McMaster
Carr's structural is listed with a tensile strength of 60,000 PSI.  Does
this make it stronger than aluminum?

John KK9A


To:	<towertalk at contesting.com>
Subject:	[TowerTalk] Solid Al vs Solid fiberglass ?
From:	"Jim Thomson" <jim.thom at telus.net>
Date:	Sun, 22 Jan 2017 15:06:23 -0800

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