Masonry and Concrete Members Strengthened with Fibre-Reinforced Composite Materials: Research Advances
A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Construction and Building Materials".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 January 2025 | Viewed by 9927
Special Issue Editor
Interests: reinforced concrete structures; masonry structures; seismic performance assessment; seismic retrofit; repairing and strengthening with FRP; sustainable materials; laboratory testing; modelling
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The use of fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) is being an increasingly attractive solution for the repair and external strengthening of reinforced concrete (RC) and masonry structures thanks to several benefits, such as: high strength-to-weight ratio, good durability, and possibility of being ad hoc engineered to meet the targeted structural requirements. Since the first applications dated from the 1990s, the number of theoretical and experimental studies has significantly worldwide increased through years to lead to the publication of well-established international guidelines, such as ACI 440.2R and CNR-DT 200.
Recently, the fabric reinforced cementitious matrix (FRCM) has been applied as a “green” alternative solution to FRP materials; it is particularly useful to overcome some drawbacks related to the use of epoxy matrices, such as: the poor composite-substrate compatibility, the low permeability of the strengthened surface, and the difficulties in removing the FRP sheets without damaging the substrate. This last aspect represents an application limit for buildings recognized as culturally important, for which conservation and preservation are mandatory criteria and, therefore, structural engineers look for retrofitting techniques that reduce the invasiveness and, at the same time, assure a satisfactory level of reversibility (or at least removability). Despite the reduced amount of data and information available for the development of reliable design formulae, preliminary international guidelines for the strengthening of structural members with FRCMs are also now available, such as ACI 549.4R (for concrete applications), ACI 549.6R (for masonry applications), and CNR-DT 215.
In terms of advancing knowledge on repairing and strengthening of masonry and RC structures with FRP and FRCM materials, this Special Issue aims at providing the scientific community with a collection of high-quality and peer-reviewed papers addressing different aspects of the structural behavior, spanning from the material mechanical characterization to the analysis of material efficiency in several applications, such as (but not limited to): flexural and/or shear strengthening, confinement and RC beam-column joints’ strengthening. Both experimental and theoretical investigations are welcome.
Dr. Annalisa Napoli
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- fiber reinforced polymer (FRP)
- fabric-reinforced cementitious matrix (FRCM)
- sustainable materials
- concrete structures
- masonry structures
- repairing
- external strengthening
- seismic retrofitting
- material characterization
- experimental investigation
- modeling
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