Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymers in Bridge Engineering

From where are we coming, and to where are we going with Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymers (CFRPs) in bridge engineering? CFRPs have been used starting 1991 in practical applications for bridge rehabilitation. Since about 2000 this class of materials is accepted for post-strengthening in most countries. Due to quick and easy application techniques and therefore less labour hours, it is in general more economic to post-strengthen a bridge with expensive CFRPs instead of steel. The R&D work for CFRP cables has been initiated in 1980. World’s first CFRP stay cables were installed in 1996. From the technical point of view CFRP cables are very successful, however not from the economic side. As long as not the whole life cycle of a bridge will be considered, CFRP will not replace steel for such applications. Solutions are discussed to overcome this hurdle. If in the far future very long span bridges will be needed, CFRPs will be instrumental for such constructions.