STRESSED AND UNSTRESSED ADVANCED COMPOSITE PLATES FOR THE REPAIR AND STRENGTHENING OF STRUCTURES

The benefits of advanced composite materials have now been recognised by many sectors of the civil engineering industry, largely as a result of the publication of research results demonstrating the scope for economic and durable strengthening. Much of this research has been aimed, in particular, at application of unstressed plates applied to concrete bridge structures. This paper considers some of the results of this research and some practical applications, together with more recent developments that have extended the technique to encompass stressing of the composite reinforcement and application to metal structures. Mouchel have been involved in much of this early work, both as lead partner in the ROBUST project described, and in the development of stressing techniques subsequently used on Hythe Bridge. For the covering abstract see ITRD E106406.