Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composites : A Novel Way for Strengthening Structures

Mumbai : To meet up the requirements of advanced infrastructure, new innovative materials/ technologies in construction industry has started to making its way. Any technology or material has its limitations. To meet the new requirements, new technologies have to be invented and put to use. With structures becoming old and the increasing bar corrosion, old buildings have started to demand additional retrofits to increase their durability and life.

Use of FRP for confinement has proved to be effective retrofitting and strengthening application. The confinement in seismically active regions has proved to be one of the early applications of FRP materials in infrastructure applications. Confinement may be beneficial in non-seismic zones too, where, for instance, survivability of explosive attacks is required or the axial load capacity of a column needs to be increased due to higher vertical loads, e.g. if new storey's have to be added to an existing building or if an existing bridge deck has to be widened. In any case, confinement with FRP may be provided by wrapping RC columns with prefabricated jackets or in situ cured sheets, in which the principal fiber direction is circumferential. Beams, Plates and columns may be strengthened in flexure through the use of FRP composites bonded to their tension zone using epoxy as a common adhesive for this purpose. The direction of fibers is parallel to that of high tensile stresses. Both prefabricated FRP strips, as well as sheets (wet-layup) are applied. Hence, FRP composites are finding ways to prove effective and economical at the same time.