Construction fibre reinforced polymer composite

Fibre reinforced polymer composite materials for building and construction... 

One of the most important characteristics of polymer materials is that they are lightweight. The term lightweight construction is often used in connection with so-called lightweight construction materials such as fibre-reinforced polymer composites. These are important because of their high strength at relatively low density. However, conventional construc-... 

Fibre-reinforced polymer composites (FRP) are lightweight and very durable, but their initial cost is higher than that of steel. However, these materials compare well on the basis of their lower construction and long-term maintenance costs. FRP have not realised their potential in construction applications. Contributing factors include the perceived expense and a lack of confidence on the part of clients and designers. 

Cripps A. Fibre-reinforced Polymer Composites in Construction. 2002, London CIRIA. 

Key words fibre-reinforced polymer composites, polyester, theimoset polymers, composites, reinforced polymers, construction materials, mechanical properties. 

Firth I and Cooper D (2001), The Halgavor Bridge - the use of glass-fibre reinforced polymer composites as the primary structural material in new bridge construction , NGCC First Annual Conference andAGM Composites in Construction Through Life Performance, Watford, UK, 30-31 October, 1-11. 

Moy, S. S. J. and Nikoukar, F. (2002), Flexural behavior of steel beams reinforced with carbon fibre reinforced polymer composite . Proceedings of the First International Conference on Advanced Polymer Composites for Structural Applications in Construction, Southampton University, UK, 15-17 April 2002, pp. 195-202. 

Potyrala, P. B. (2011), Use of fibre reinforced polymer composite bridge construction - State-of-the-art in hybrid and all composite structures . Project of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Spain. 

COBRAE. The objective of COBRAE is to promote research, development, standardisation and application of fibre reinforced polymer composites in rehabilitation, upgrade and new build bridge constructions... 

With environmental awareness, natural fibre reinforced polymer composites have been expanding their application in sectors such as the automotive, construction, and packaging industries as a replacement for inorganic fibre reinforced polymer composites. Currently, glass fibre is one of the most widely used fibres to reinforce polymers, which can give superior mechanical properties. 

The well-known possibilities of the use of textiles and fibres in construction have developed into fields of application ranging from geotextiles to fibre-reinforced concrete, concrete reinforcing armatures made of fibre-reinforced polymers, usually carbon fibre composites (CFCs), textile membranes and sheeting and to constructions made of fibre-reinforced polymers as multi-layer composites. The present book is dedicated to the spectrum of building geotextiles are excluded, since they are less commonly used for building construction and are more common in earthworks, transit structures and landfills. 

The fagade construction is unusual due to its use of a series of horizontal glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP) composite ribs supported by vertical... 

The construction industry is using various kinds of composite materials such as fibre reinforced plastics (FRP), polymer concrete, polymer-asphalt, fibre reinforced polymer concrete, and so on. 

Fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites are composed of fibres and matrices, which are bonded through the interface to ensure that the composite system as a whole gives satisfactory performance. Part 1 deals with FRP composite matrix materials which provide the foundation for composite materials. Chapter 2 reviews the chemistry of phenolic resins together with their mechanical and thermal properties. Chapter 3 discusses polyester thermoset resins as matrix materials. An overview of the chemistry of vinylester resins, together with their mechanical and chemical properties, as well as their use as a matrix material in the construction industry, is provided in Chapter 4. The final chapter in Part 1 begins with a review of the epoxy resins commonly available on the market, and then focuses on the principal characteristics of epoxy resin composite systems and their practical applications. 

Creative Pultrusion Inc. use a compression process to manufacture parts of bridges and other products, including cables, plates, Bethlehem beams and wooden panels, and even platform coverings for public transport have been manufactured and tested. A new product has been developed, known as SuperLoc composite plate pier, which has a unique ball-and-stock connection between the panels. The main application areas for this new product are in swimming pools, pedestrian walkways, docks, shipyards, and so on. Another new product is DuraSpan, which is designed for use in fibre-reinforced polymers for bridge construction [32]. 

In the last two decades, there has been an increasing effort to migrate reinforced polymer composites into the construction industry for structural load-bearing applications where they have established themselves as a viable and competitive alternative for rehabilitation and retrofit of existing civil structures, as a replacement for steel in reinforced concrete and, to a lesser extent, for entirely new civil structures. There are many reasons to consider fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites in civil engineering applications. This section is intended to provide a brief summary of these reasons along with the issues that have slowed down a widespread acceptance of these composites in the construction sector. 

Shave, J. D., Denton, S. R. and Frostick, I. (2009), St Austell Footbridge The first fibre reinforced polymer structure on the UK rail network . Fourth International Conference on Advanced Composites in Construction (ACIC 2009), 1-3 September 2009, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland. 

Yapa, H. D. and Lees, J. M. (2009), Optimum shear strengthening of reinforced concrete beams with prestressed carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) straps . Proceedings of the 4th Advanced Composites in Construction (ACIC 09), eds S. Halliwell and C. Whysall, NetComposites, pp. 214-226. 

Composite rehabilitation systems (CRS), i.e., structural hybrid systems involving advanced polymer composite (APC) materials (generally referred to as fibre-reinforced polymer, FRP), structural adhesives (SA) and conventional construction materials (CCM) (e.g., timber, concrete, masomy, steel, iron), constitute one such technology. 

Although the use of a discrete fibre and matrix has been shown to allow the construction of self-reinforced polymer composites either by using slightly different chemistries or by physical constraint to achieve the combination of fibre and matrix, other technologies have been presented in which self-reinforced polymer composites are created solely from the reinforcing phase without the addition of extra matrix material. These methods represent a very significant contribution to the field of self-reinforced polymer composites and are described in Sect. 2.7. 

B.P. Hughes and J.E. Guest, Polymer modified fibre reinforced cement composites . Polymers in Concrete. Proceedings of the First International Congress on Polymer Concretes, 1975. The Construction Press, Lancaster, 1976, pp. 85-92. 

Abbasi, A. and P. J. Hogg (2004). Fire testing of concrete beams with fibre reinforced plastic rebar. In Advanced Polymer Composites for Structural Applications in Construction, ed. L. C. Hollaway, Cambridge, UK, Woodhead Publishing, pp. 445-456. 

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