AN ADVANCED COMPOSITES STRUCTURAL CONCEPT FOR PORT AND HARBOUR STRUCTURES

摘要

This paper advances a new structural concept using advanced composite materials for port and harbour structures. Such structures all over the world are known to be highly vulnerable to salt attack and structural distress arising from the consequences of steel corrosion. Among the many possible solutions to this problem, the use of corrosion-free new materials in place of steel bars offers a cost-effective way forward. The solution considered in this paper combines the use of carbon fibre prestressing rods and precast construction as a convenient and flexible structural strategy for durable concrete structures exposed to marine environment. This paper summarizes the first stage of this work, and reports tests on unbonded prestressed concrete beams tensioned with CFRP rods. Tests on twelve beams, 5m long and 500 × 400 mm in cross-section, under short term loading and after one year exposure, are analyzed and discussed. The paper aims to show that cost-effective durable solutions can be developed using CFRP bars for structures exposed to environments highly aggressive to concrete.