Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Composites for Building and Bridge Applications

Dear Colleagues,

Fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) material, known for its high strength, light weight, and excellent durability under harsh conditions or in coastal environments, has been widely used as a popular material in the strengthening, repairing, and retrofitting of existing structures. Additionally, the combination of FRP and traditional construction materials has been increasingly employed in the construction of buildings and bridges. Recently, new fibers (such as flax or basalt fibers) and new matrixes (such as cementitious or geo-polymer matrixes) have shown great potential in lieu of traditional FRP composites in many engineering scenarios. These emerging research fields have attracted extensive interest from the research community. For the safe and effective application of FRP composites in civil engineering, plausible approaches to aid in estimating the performances of such structures need to be developed.

This Special Issue (SI) aims to present recent advances and emerging cross-disciplinary approaches in FRP composites by collecting predominantly integrated studies pertaining to the performances of FRP composite structures. Studies from experimental testing, analytical approaches, numerical simulation, and emerging algorithms of the performances of strengthening existing structures and new-built structures are welcome.

It is our pleasure to invite you to submit a manuscript for possible publication in this SI. Technical articles and review papers are expected to reflect original research and technological advances on topics that include, but are not strictly limited to, the following fields: 

• FRP-strengthened concrete, steel, wood/bamboo, and 3D printing structures;
• Fiber-reinforced cementitious matrix (FRCM);
• Thin-walled FRP composites for building and bridge applications;
• Non-destructive evaluation (NDE) of composite-related structures;
• FRP in combination with non-traditional cementitious materials;
• Emerging algorithms and analytical approaches in composite structures.

Dr. Xingxing Zou
Dr. Lili Hu
Dr. Zhiqiang Dong
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Polymers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.