ABSTRACT
The FRP composites industry has enjoyed a period of growth for the past several decades in such markets as transportation, marine, general construction, and consumer markets. Growth of these markets is often dependent on the customer’s acceptance of new materials. In fact, the FRP composites industry worked with the original equipment manufactures to provide specific solutions to existing products where traditional materials were not practical or feasible. For this reason, acceptance in most of these FRP composite markets is based more on the fact that the materials perform at the end-use customer’s level of expectation rather than the industry having to provide specific durability and performance criteria. This is not true of the civil infrastructure market and what civil engineers require today. The FRP composites industry has learned that they must approach the civil infrastructure market in new ways because the demands for performance and durability far exceed what has been normal procedure in other markets. This paper will review some of the key areas that are necessary for successful market acceptance.
