Saturday, March 21, 2015

The Benefits Of Using Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer

By Lelia Hall


There are many types of fibers that can be used to reinforce polymer matrix composites. Actually, corrosion of internal reinforcing steel is one of the main causes of failure of concrete structures. It cannot be avoided that concrete will surely crack, creating a direct avenue for chlorides to start oxidizing the steel bar. Fiberglass is a type of reinforced plastic where the reinforcement fiber is specifically glass fibers.

This lightweight material can be used for different products. Actually, it also a versatile material because of its inherent strength, resistant finish, lightweight, weather resistant and variety of surface textures. One of the tested and proven alternatives for the reinforcement is the glass fiber reinforced polymer for materials, design guides, spectrum of authoritative, test methods and qualification of procedures to each designer.

Using this material can give a guarantee that owners and designers can be commercially and safely implement the reinforcement in various types of structures. This fiberglass can be applied into several forms of fibers. It is not a stiff or strong like the carbon fibers but has a characteristic making it more applicable in different structural applications. Also, it is non conductive and invisible to every type of transmission. This way, it is a great choice when you are dealing with electrical and broadcast applications.

Most of the mechanical properties and behaviors of fiber reinforced polymers such as the glass fiber and carbon versus the metal reinforcing must be learned and understood by anyone before taking the designs of structures using the said reinforcements. Most of these systems are acceptable alternatives to every steel reinforcement for concrete structures.

The advantages of these systems as compared to steel reinforcement is also flexible to corrosion. In fact, the masonry structures may benefit from this system and can be useful to strengthen each structure that can be specified by the engineers in public and private industries. Glass fibers are also used to reinforced fiber in several FRPs.

An essential factor to consider when choosing the type of reinforced composite for structural applications is to understand the limitation of the fibers to resist long term loading. Cyclic and continuous loading in a fiber polymer in excess of its ability to resist loads may persuade fatigue failure, long term deflection and creep rupture in the structural element.

Most of its advantages include corrosion resistant, high strength and light weight, dimensionally stable, low thermal conductivity and non conductive as well as impact resistant, electromagnetically transparent and low life cycle costs. Its main disadvantage is its high initial cost as compared to steel reinforcement.

FRPs are also used for structural augmentation and applied in various applications. Mostly, they are used for marine environment, slopes, roads, tunnels and bridges. The internal reinforcement has its specific advantage especially in tunnel walls. But the steel reinforcement may only damage the tunnel boring machines.

Knowing all these things will give you an idea before the project. It can create great awareness of the things that must be done before starting. This is especially when planning to build complex structure. This is another way to determine the right applications.




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