Structural retrofitting using fiber reinforced polymers

Abstract

Over the past decades, fiber reinforced polymers (FRP) have been widely used in the aeronautical and naval industries. Being more costly than conventional Civil Engineering materials such as steel or concrete, they have not been used on a large scale yet. However progress in understanding their limitations and possible applications for construction has led to increasing applications in structural retrofitting. When compared with other solutions to retrofit bridges or buildings that are in poor state or need to be able to withstand greater loads than the one they where designed for originally, fiber reinforced polymers appear to be an economical, efficient and particularly time saving alternative. This thesis analyses the properties of fiber reinforced polymers and their various applications in the field of Civil Engineering. Flexural and shear strengthening, column retrofitting, blast and seismic applications are presented as well as the different modes of failures encountered when fiber reinforced polymers are used. For each of these applications recent examples are provided and analysed. Fiber reinforced polymers have been used in different countries and therefore different standards for their applications have been defined, under different assumptions. This thesis provides a comparison of the standards regarding shear strengthening in the main codes used in the USA, Canada and Europe and analyses the origin for such differences.