Strength Characteristics of Concrete Specimen Wrapped with Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer

Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) is one of a relatively new class of composite material. These materials are manufactured from a combination of fibers and resins. These composite materials have proven to be efficient and economical for the development of new structures and the repair of deteriorating structures in civil engineering. One of the important reasons for the use of GFRP composite materials is because of its superior mechanical properties. These mechanical properties includes impact resistance, strength, stiffness, flexibility and also its enhanced ability to carry loads. In construction industry, in order to meet the advanced infrastructure requirements, new innovative technologies and materials are being introduced. Also any new technology or material has its own limitations but to meet the new requirements, new technologies and materials have to be invented and put to use. With structures becoming old and increasing bar corrosion, old buildings have to be retrofitted with additional materials to increase their durability and life. For strengthening and retrofitting of concrete structures confinement with FRP has various applications. In this project concrete specimens are wrapped with glass fibre reinforced polymers to study the effect of confinement in the strength of specimens. For wrapping bi-directional and uni-directional glass fibre reinforced polymer mats are used. During the uni-directional glass fibre reinforced polymer wrapping, it is wrapped in both horizontal and vertical directions. The fiber used in this paper is bi-directional fibre. To find the effect of wrapping, specimens are wrapped in one rotation and two rotations.