Utilization of FRP sheets to strengthen upgrade and repair infrastructure

Abstract

The major part of the infrastructure components of Saudi Arabia was built in the last 30 years and the cost was hundreds of billions of Saudi Riyals. Unfortunately, great many of that infrastructure was built in the absence of local design codes that consider the influence of local conditions, adequate supervision and lack of quality control. Therefore, great part of the beautifully constructed structures are now suffering from an accelerated deterioration. This was further aggravated by the severe weather of the country. As part of the effort in evaluating the suitability of the available alternatives to increase the span life of the infrastructure, several research projects were funded by several governmental agencies. This paper presents some details about a big project that was funded to investigate the suitability of using fiber reinforced polymer composites to repair, strengthen and/or upgrade beams, columns, walls and pipes.