Carbon Fiber: The Future of Building Materials

The need for rehabilitation, repair and strengthening of concrete structure has increased worldwide with a growing number of systems employing concrete jacketing, various retrofitting techniques, externally applied fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites, etc. For applications of structures, an overview of different FRP composites is provided by various polymer composites and in civil structures FRP composites are used for reinstatement or firming up the elemental constituent. In our project we have examined the ability of a woven carbon fiber reinforced fabric wrapping to enhance the strength of various building components. For this purpose few concrete cubes were casted and were carbon wrapped to check the increase in strength. The strengths of cubes with carbon fiber wrapping and without carbon fiber wrapping were compared and the results were observed to have increased in strength for the carbon fiber wrapped cubes. Along with these cubes a column at a building site was also examined whose compressive strength was found to be less than design strength. Non � destructive test of Rebound Hammer was conducted on this column and later it was wrapped with carbon fiber fabric to increase its strength. Also, the expenses of both the methods i. e. concrete jacketing and carbon fiber wrapping were compared and the carbon fiber wrapping was found to be economic than the other method. In both cases the strength was found to be increased than the initial strength. Hence, the carbon fiber was found to be effective both