The role of quality control and of long-term monitoring in the structural applications of composite materials

The progressive diffusion of FRP materials for structural strengthening and reinforcement purposes is increasingly pulling the demand of specialized testing procedures aimed to assess the quality of the installation work and the durability of the intervention. This paper introduces some critical aspects of FRP applications and presents an overview of the quality control techniques that are suggested by the Italian standard specifications. Specific non-destructive testing techniques are presented in real case studies as well. In addition, the usefulness of structural health monitoring applied to FRP applications is considered and discussed