Abstract
Fiber-reinforced polymers (FRPs) are materials that comprise high-strength continuous fibers and resin polymer, and the resins comprise a matrix in which the fibers are embedded. As the technique of FRP production has advanced, FRPs have attained many incomparable advantages over traditional building materials such as concrete and steel, and thus they play a significant role in the strengthening and retrofitting of concrete structures. Bridges that are built out of FRPs have been widely used in overpasses of highways, railways and streets. However, damages in FRP bridges are inevitable due to long-term static and dynamic loads. The health of these bridges is important. Here, we review the maintenance and inspection methods for FRP structures of bridges and analyze the advantages, shortcomings and costs of these methods. The results show that two categories of methods should be used sequentially. First, simple methods such as visual inspection, knock and dragging-chain methods are used to determine the potential damage, and then radiation, modal analysis and load experiments are used to determine the damage mode and degree. The application of FRP is far beyond the refurbishment, consolidation and construction of bridges, and these methods should be effective to maintain and inspect the other FRP structures.
Highlights
We review the maintenance and inspection methods for Fiber-reinforced polymers (FRPs) structures of bridges and analyze the advantages, shortcomings and costs of these methods
FRP materials have been used in aircraft and ship structures for a long time, so the nondestructive inspections used in the fields of aviation and navigation can be used for the inspections of FRP bridges
The position of the discontinuity can be determined by the amplitude of the reflection wave and the corresponding reflection time. This method is effective in detecting damage under the surface of laminated materials, such as debonding between the wearing layer and FRP bridge deck and delamination of the flange of the FRP bridge deck
Summary
Fiber-reinforced polymers (abbreviation FRP) are compound materials [1,2,3,4]. Generally, FRP is composed of resin and fibers with high strength. The fibers act as reinforcing components, and the loads are transferred between the fibers through the resin. Such FRPs can effectively resist ultraviolet rays, chemical corrosion, the freeze-thaw cycle, the dry-wet cycle, high temperatures and humidity, and are light and high-strength [4,5,6,7,8] In this way, FRPs are widely used in the field of architecture. When the span of a bridge is very large and the bridge is made of reinforced concrete, about eighty-five percent of the bridge load is dead-weight. The decrease of bridge’s dead-weight depends on light, high-strength and durabile materials. Some studies have reviewed the types of FRP applications in reinforced concrete structures [8,9,10,11,12].
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