ABSTRACT
Although fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) materials have been accepted by several civil engineers in the recent past (Burgueno et al. 2001; Chajes et al. 2001; Alampalli et al. 2002; Alampalli and Kunin 2003; Shekar et al. 2003; Turner et al. 2003), the methods of applying them are still in their infancy (ASCE/CERF 2001; Aboutaha 2004). Not much data on their service life, durability, maintainability, reparability, and life cycle costs are yet available. So, several of the earlier applications were designed very conservatively (Alampalli et al. 2002; Aref and Chiewanichakorn 2002; Alampalli and Kunin 2003; Chiewanichakorn et al. 2003a, 2003b). More data are still needed for proper design, construction, maintenance, and optimization of sections to make them more cost-effective. So, there is a strong need for structural health monitoring (SHM) to document the in-service performance of bridges retrofitted with FRP materials under service loads. The following sections explore two main applications of FRPs in bridge structures. The basic use of each application is described along with a discussion on how structural health in civil engineering (SHCE) can be used to maximize the benefits of the use of FRP in each application (Alampalli and Ettouney 2006).
