Future Building - Carbon for Bridges, Roofs and Facades

The properties of Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymers (CFRPs), very high strength, light weight, zero corrosion and no fatigue can fully be exploited for cable structures. The ideal structures for CFRP cables are highly pre-tensioned cable systems that are loaded orthogonally to their cable axes. High performance structures, such as stress-ribbon bridges, long-span roofs and facades made of CFRP can already be built economically today. In order to prove this point, CFRP prototype structures, a stress-ribbon bridge and a small spoked wheel cable roof built at the Technische Universität Berlin, are presented. First, however, cable structures, CFRP materials and existing CFRP cable structures are introduced in general.