Properties and potential for application of steel reinforced polymer and steel reinforced grout composites

The paper introduces steel reinforced polymer (SRP) and steel reinforced grout (SRG) composites that are considered for application in civil engineering for bridge and concrete buildings upgrade. These composites consist of steel cords formed by interwoven steel wires embedded within a polymer resin or cementitious grout matrix. The properties of SRP are evaluated experimentally and compared to micromechanical equations to determine a suitability of these equations for the prediction of material constants. The effectiveness of SRP is evaluated on existing structures (i.e. slab strips of a parking garage) while SRG performance is studied on laboratory-prepared large-scale reinforced concrete beams. It is shown that both composites significantly enhance the strength of the concrete members providing the first evidence of their suitability for practical applications concerned with upgrading the existing infrastructure. Improvements subsequent to the testing to both the cord design and fabric manufacturing process show even greater promise.