Emerging Technology 4

Fiber Reinforced Plastics

The construction industry is advancing very fast and new materials are needed over the traditional and heavy structural materials. Fiber reinforced Plastic is lighter, stronger and more resistant to corrosion, impacts, parasites and chemicals, therefore it could possibly be a substitute for steel, concrete, masonry and wood.

Fiber Reinforced Plastic has already been introduced into the construction market on a smal scale in structural shapes such as cross-sections, w0sections and tube sections as any combination of shape can be manifactured.
Concrete Reinforcement is another application of FRP as it is as strong as steel but doesnt have all the weaknesses of steel, weaving mat fibers impregnated by resin and then curing the resin is the main method used for this application.

Other applications include prestressing and Post-tensioning Tendons and Pre-Engineered Structural Systems.

FRP has many advantages in that it is low weight, high strength, easy to erect and corrosion resistant, it also leads to lower construction and material costs and higher life cycle period conpared to traditional buildings.

The only barrier at the moment is presented by the lack of acceptance into building codes around the world so it has been limited to smaller applications.