First of all, Prof. XUE Weichen from Tongji University made the theme report on 'State of the Art and Prospects of Design Codes for FRP Reinforced Concrete Structures'. He introduced the research progress on the properties of FRP rebars and mechanical properties of concrete structures with FRP reibars, especially in bending, shear torsion, seismic resistance and long-term performance of non-prestressed and prestressed FRP PC beams and columns, as well as the research advances of his team in these aspects. After that, he also introduced and compared the current standards for the design of FRP rebar concrete structures at home and abroad, focused on the Shanghai city standard 'Technical Standard for Design and Construction of Concrete Structures with Fibre-reinforced Polymer Reinforcements', and looked forward to the next researches on concrete with FRP reibars.
Secondly, Mr. ZHONG Qingming, the Marketing Manager of Dextra Building Products (Guangdong) Co., Ltd. made the keynote report on 'Application of GFRP Rebar in Permanent Building Structure'. Mr. ZHONG introduced the characteristics of FRP materials in terms of composition, structural design, environmental impact, etc. He believed that FRP rebars could play a key role in chloride corrosion mitigation, non-magnetic reinforcement, and weight reduction according to the performance requirements for concrete structures. As well as, he exampled its applications in offshore engineering, bridge flooring and pavements, prefabricated heat insulation walls, prefabricated pipe racks and other fields. Finally, he shared the case of the 21km flood discharge canal project completed by Dextra in Jazan, Saudi Arabia, and introduced the advantages of GFRP rebars other than epoxy coated steel rebars in terms of installation, comprehensive design, long-term maintenance, comprehensive cost, etc., which saved 28% of the total cost for the whole life cycle of Jazan flood discharge canal project.
Thirdly, Prof. WANG Xin from Southeast University shared the keynote report on ‘Design and Application of FRP Rebars in Bridge Construction’. In view of the sustainable problems faced in the current bridge structures, he proposed that FRP is an important choice to solve the corrosion resistance, long service life and high performance of bridge projects. His team carried out systematic research on the preparation and performance evaluation of FRP rebars. Especially, he introduced some breakthroughs in advanced preparation technologies such as continuous grids, special-shaped hybrid cables and one-time molding, and the development of microscopic in-situ analysis devices and service life prediction methods to simulate the whole process of over 100 years of services and exampled some typical applications of FRP rebars in bridge projects such as pier columns, bridge deck systems, and reinforced rebars.
Prof. HAN Shijie from CCCC Third Harbor Consultants Co., Ltd. shared the theme report on 'Application and Exploration of FRP Rebars in Offshore Engineering'. He exampled the application scenarios of FRP rebars in some ocean engineering projects, such as coastal ports, artificial islands, seawalls, wharves and other offshore structures and pointed out the advantages of FRP rebars in ocean engineering projects. In addition, he also shared the suggestions on the application of FRP rebars in offshore engineering through the case in Yangshan Phase IV Offshore Program. He believed that the application of FRP rebars should be further standardized, and the construction of the industry-university-research system should be further strengthened.
Finally, in the salon session, four experts expressed their views on the key points of the large-scale application and the engineering promotion of FRP rebars, the application prospect of FRP rebars in offshore engineering and prefabricated structures, and the standardization of FRP products and structures, and were interacted with online scholars on the shear resistance of FRP grid structures, the durability analysis software for FRP rebar piers, the pH environment and the cost performance of thermoplastic FRP rebars and other issues.
This forum was successfully ended in a warm academic discussion. In this forum, domestic scholars further understood the historical development, research status and standards of FRP rebars for civil engineering projects and were familiar with different application scenarios of FRP rebars, so that their academic vision were broadened.
We look forward to meeting you again at NEXCEL Forum on Flooring and Pavement Materials on December 8.
