Concrete beams can be strengthened for both shear and flexural forces, using epoxy bonded FRP fabrics or laminates. When flexural strengthening is needed, the FRP is bonded to the tension face. When shear strengthening is required, the FRP is bonded to the web of the beam.

• Increases Flexural Strength
• Increases Shear Strength
• Does Not Reduce Overhead Clearance
• Light Weight And Easy To Apply
• Costs Less Than Other Alternatives

FRPs can be used to increase the strength of steel girders; they can also be used to repair cracked steel girders by bonding a strip of FRP across the cracks. The most comprehensive static and fatigue studies in the world, conducted by the principal of CarbonWrap™ Solutions on strengthening of steel girders, have demonstrated that full capacity of cracked girders can be restored by bonding FRP to the cracked area. Millions of fatigue cycles of the repaired girders showed no distress or delamination of the FRP from the steel.

• Restores Full Capacity of Cracked Girders
• Increases Flexural Capacity
• Increases Fatigue Life
• Increases Stiffness
• Eliminates Stress Concentration due to Welding
• Costs Less Than Other Alternatives

The flexural and shear strength of wood girders can be increased by bonding FRP to the tension flange and the web of the girders. If the wood can be fully wrapped around with the FRP sheet, its compression load carrying capacity can also be increased due to confinement.

• Increases Shear Capacity
• Increases flexural Capacity
• Reduces Deflection
• Protects Wood from Environmental Damage

The most widely used application for FRPs in construction, thus far, has been the wrapping of concrete columns to increase both ductility and strength. Due to the beneficial effects of confinement, the column ductility can be significantly increased. In addition, FRP wrap helps to make up for inadequate amount or improperly detailed lateral ties and increases the shear strength of the columns significantly. The problem with inadequate starter bars lap length can also be mitigated by wrapping the columns with FRP.

• Increases Ductility
• Increases Shear Strength
• Increases Axial Load Carrying Capacity
• Light Weight and Easy to Install
• Can be Wrapped Along Columns with Varying Cross Sectional Patterns
• Costs Less Than Alternatives Such as Steel Jacketing

CarbonWrap™ Solutions has developed a very intriguing, highly effective and economical system for strengthening hollow tubular columns. The technique involves inserting a specially designed flexible FRP tube inside the column and filling it with a compatible polymer concrete mixture. In this manner, a reinforced concrete column is developed inside the existing tubular steel column, where the FRP acts as the tension carrying reinforcement and the polymer concrete takes the compression forces. Thousands of columns have been strengthened with this method during the past couple of years.

• Increases Axial Load Carrying Capacity
• Increases Flexural Strength
• Increases Shear Strength
• Eliminated corrosion Problems
• Costs Less Than Alternatives

The same principle that is used to increase the flexural strength of concrete beams can also be used to increase the flexural strength of concrete slabs. FRP fabrics or laminates are simply bonded to the bottom surface of slabs (positive moment regions) or to the top of the slab (negative moment regions) to significantly increase the flexural capacity of the slab.

• Increases Flexural Strength
• Reduces Deflections
• Light weight and Easy to Apply
• Protects Slab From Further Environmental Damage
• Costs Less Than Alternatives

The most effective and economical application of FRPs in construction, as compared to conventional techniques, is the strengthening of buried pipes. Reinforced concrete pipes can be strengthened to take pressures even greater than that of their original design value, at a fraction of the cost and time of other alternatives. The main advantage of this technique is that excavation can be completely eliminated. In the case of 3-foot or larger diameter pipes, simple access is made through the manholes, and all operations will be conducted internally. If the pipe can be accessed from the outside, the wrapping can be performed on the external face of the pipe, resulting in the same benefits.

• Requires no excavation
• Increases pipe strength to even higher than its original pressure rating
• Access only through manholes
• Creates a very smooth surface and Improves pipe flow significantly
• FRP wrap inside the pipe is about one eighth of an inch thick --> it does not reduce the inner diameter and flow volume of the pipe
• Light weight - requires no heavy equipment for installation
• Materials are very durable and approved by the National Sanitary Foundation (NSF)
• Cost far less than alternatives and results in speedy construction