Foundation, Concrete and Earthquake Engineering

Limitation of CFRP

CFRP is used in civil engineering, automobile and other fields. But it have some drawbacks which limits its use in some fields. The first one is cost. Though CFRP is generally regarded as having superior properties, it is more costly material that its counterparts in the construction industry, glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP) and aramid fibre reinforced polymer (AFRP). In case of prestressing construction it cannot be used due to difficulties in anchorage of strands.

Much research continues to be done on using CFRP both for retrofitting and as an alternative to steel as a reinforcing or prestressing material. Cost remains an issue and long term durability questions still remain. Some are concerned about the brittle nature of CFRP, in contrast to the ductility of steel. Though design codes have been drawn up by institutions such as the American Concrete Institute, there remains some hesitation among the engineering community about implementing these alternative materials. In part this is due to a lack of standardisation and the proprietary nature of the fiber and resin combinations on the market, though this in itself is advantageous in that the material properties can be tailored to the desired application requirements.

It have no endurance limit when exposed to cyclic loading. In case of recycling to reclaim the carbon fibre, the milling or shredding at low temperature shortens the fibres dramatically. The shortened fibres cause the recycled material to be weaker than the original material. Other processing of reclaiming carbon fibre are costly.
In case of automative application, its use is limited for creating body-panel for some of high-end cars, hood, spoiler. However, these parts are rarely made of full carbon fibre. They are often just a single layer of carbon fiber laminated onto fiberglass for the "look" of carbon fiber. It is common for these parts to remain unpainted to accentuate the look of the carbon fiber weave.

1 comment:

  1. Excellent blog shared here. One can also get the details of steel fiber for precast only at Precision Drawell. Thanks for sharing.

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