1 A STEP FORWARD IN CHARACTERIZING THE PERFORMANCE OF GFRP RODS IN CONCRETE

One significant challenge facing the world today is the decay of infrastructure. A major component of infrastructure decay is the degradation of bridges and highways due to corrosion of the embedded reinforcing steel. This problem has prompted the development of a variety of alternative strategies for increasing the service life of reinforced concrete structures exposed to harsh environments. Over the last two decades, many advanced metallic and non-metallic materials have been developed for withstanding severe corrosion typically encountered in concrete bridge decks. Glass Fibre Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) materials have not been used in large-scale construction applications despite their numerous advantages over traditional materials such as steel. Economic and technical barriers hinder industry's adoption of this new technology. The primary economic barrier preventing their use is often their high initial cost whereas the primary technical hurdle remains the relative uncertainty about the effect of these new materials on the long-term performance of FRP reinforced structures in their service environment. Based on a combination of first principle physical-chemical modelling procedures and accelerated testing, a novel approach is proposed for assessing the long-term performance of GFRP rods in concrete. Preliminary results show good agreement with observed laboratory and field performances