The 6th 2023 NEXCEL Forum on FRP Rebars & Cable held online

Time: 2023/11/24 Publisher： oiginal Views：

Introduction

On November 23, 2023, the 6th NEXCEL Series Forum on FRP Rebars & Cable was hosted by NEXCEL. Three experts and one team member of NEXCEL Project were invited to conduct presentations, sharing their latest studies on Fibre-Reinforced Polymer (FRP) rebars and cables in marina and transportation engineering, among others. This forum, co-chaired by Prof. Xue Weichen from Tongji University who is also the member of NEXCEL Technical Advisory Committee (TAC), and Dr. Li Juan, Program Director of NEXCEL, attracted participation from over 4000 professionals.

Firstly, Prof. Yu Tao from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University delivered a report titled "Sustainable Marine Infrastructure Enabled by Fibre-Reinforced Polymer Composites". In light of the challenges posed by steel reinforcement corrosion in marine infrastructure, Prof. Yu introduced a novel FRP seawater sea-sand concrete (SSC) structure and a performance evolution monitoring methodology. He established a deterioration and modelling, thereby achieving a noteworthy application of FRP-SSC concrete in marine engineering.

Mr. Zhao Qiang, Vice President of Jiangsu Chemlead New Material and member of NEXCEL TDA project in 2023, presented a report on "The Development and Application of FRP Products in Civil Engineering". Mr. Zhao provided a comprehensive overview of FRP rebars and their applications in various scenarios, with a specific focus on the preparation, performance testing, and on-site construction requirements of FRP rebars. He also proposed six major development directions for the future of FRP from a enterprise perspective.

Mr. Zhuo Jing, Chairman of Chongqing Dali Cable Technology, gave a presentation titled "Engineering Application and Key Technologies of Carbon Fiber Cable”. Mr. Zhuo elaborated on the achievements of his team in completing three carbon fiber cable projects. He put forth pivotal techniques to address the anchoring challenges of carbon fiber cable, leading to the successful application of carbon fiber cables on a suspension bridge spanning over a kilometer.

Mr. Li Ming, Vice President of OCEANPOWER New Material Technology, gave a presentation titled "Engineering Practice and Application of GFRP Rebar". Mr. Li outlined the overview of FRP rebars and engineering cases, while providing insightful recommendations for the future utilization of FRP rebars. He highlighted that under same length conditions, GFRP bars exhibit a cost reduction of more than 20% compared to traditional steel, emphasizing the vast prospects for future development.

In the final Salon/ Q&A session, experts engaged in discussions with online scholars on issues related to design specification and promotion of FRP Rebar, FRP materials in energy-saving and emission, market application of FRP templates, as well as cost-effectiveness of carbon fiber cables, etc. The forum concluded successfully with hot discussions.