Strengthening of concrete, metallic and timber construction materials with FRP composites

Abstract

This paper provides a review of research being conducted at The University of Hong Kong (HKU) on the strengthening of concrete, metallic and timber construction materials with externally bonded fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites. The motivation of such research is to enhance our understanding of the interfacial behaviour between the FRP and the three different substrate materials via FRP-to-concrete, -metal, and-timber joint tests. Of the three substrate materials, concrete has clearly experienced the most research activity to date by the wider research community, followed by that of metal and then that of timber. In order to progress the extensive knowledge base of FRP-to-concrete behaviour, research at HKU is aimed at enhancing the bond strength of the FRP via the addition of anchorage. The anchor of choice is the so called FRP anchor and its effectiveness in anchoring FRP flexural strengthening applied to reinforced concrete (RC) slabs is also presented. For the metal and timber substrate materials, HKU research is more focused at this stage on understanding the influence of key fundamental variables affecting interfacial behaviour such as FRP geometry, surface preparation and substrate material characteristics.