Preservation of Historical Monumental Structures using Fibre Reinforced Polymer (FRP) - Case Studies

Multitude of repair schemes are currently available to retrofit damaged civil engineering structures. Among them, efficient and effective method of repairing damaged structures is the application of Fiber Reinforced Plastics (FRP) because of its distinct advantages over other techniques. In the past, several structures have been successfully rehabilitated using the FRP techniques. To quote some examples, a calcareous masonry bell tower building, about 30 m in height and 1,200 m in width with a rectangular plan was retrofitted with FRP. Pushover curves for the retrofitted and un-retrofitted structures presented have disclosed that FRP intervention enhanced the seismic capacity of the structure. In the case of repairing of underwater pre- stressed piles, corrosion rate measurements indicated that the performance of the wrapped piles is consistently better than that the unwrapped controls. The paper presents a review of using the FRP techniques, their applications, case studies of repairing civil engineering structures, and appropriate concluding remarks.