KOREAN RESEARCH AND APPLICATIONS OF FRP IN BRIDGES

INTRODUCTION

Besides its exceptional resistance to corrosion, Fibre Reinforced Polymers (FRP) present the advantage to develop high strength compared to its self-weight which highlighted it recently as a material that can replace fairly classical construction materials like steel and concrete. The emergence of glass fiber and the development of resin fabrication technology made it possible to reduce significantly the costs of FRP material and the emphasis given on the importance of lifecycle cost (LCC) for structures after the 1980s opened its exploitation in the construction domain About 42% of the 575,000 bridges constituting the American bridge stock is requiring repair or strengthening. Surveys revealed that the main cause of their degradation is the corrosion of rebar Accordingly, the 10 years-term CONMAT (CONstruction MATerial) Program has been launched in 1995 to rehabilitate such social infrastructures with a budget of 2 billion dollars, of which 40% has been invested in domains applying FRP on bridge structures. This investment aimed to develop the next generation of bridge systems presenting improved durability and reduced LCC. The first FRP deck was built in 1996 in USA and, 32 bridges were applying bridge system using FRP in the late 2000 .Moreover, the IBRC (Innovative Bridge Research & Construction) Program launched in 1998 is  supporting financially structures making use of materials like FRP, HPS (High Performance Steel) and HPC (High Performance Concrete)