Dear Christi,

probably, there is no unique (one) answer to your question. There are variety of fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) materials made of glass, carbon, basalt, etc. and their combination (hybridization) in different orientations and proportions. From strength, stiffness, modulus, ductility, as well as cost viewpoints they have widely varied performance/effectiveness, that also depends upon which application is intended. Hence, there is hardly anything that can be called one "perfect FRP".

These FRP materials and products (chopped fibers, laminates, strips, plates, fabrics, rods, strands, tendons, etc.) are also called "engineered composites", which signifies the fact that, the FRP materials/structures can be engineered for achieving some desirable engineering characteristics/properties by the designer as per project-specific requirements.

Hope this clarifies.

With best regards,

Vasant Matsagar.

Basically, there are two types of fibers one is of higher modulus of elasticity than concrete and another is lower elastic modulus fiber.

High elastic modulus fibers can improve both flexural strength as well as impact resistance.

For ductility point of view I think steel fiber is the good choice which can also control the crack width in compression to conventional concrete. If we use crimped steel fiber then it gives better result.

If we need more improvements in the results of ductility and cracking then we move to hybrid fiber, such as combination of steel and polypropylene, steel and glass etc. It gives much more enhanced results.

So, if you want to use mono fiber then go through steel fiber and you will definitely get better results. For further improvement please use hybrid fiber.

Dear Christi,

I totally agree with Prof. Vasant Matsagar. I just want to add one important aspect of FRP. As we know that the FRP is used in conjunction with the organic matrix (i.e. epoxy resin and hardener), therefore debonding failure mode is the most important aspect. This type of failure is very common where there is no proper external anchorage system that will connect the substrate and the FRP composite. Due to debonding, the failure occurs at the interface between the substrate and the FRP and therefore the tensile strength of the composite will not be fully utilized and therefore slippage occurs at one of the edges. If we can prevent this type of failure, then FRP can be utilized in a very efficient way. It has been observed that very high strength FRP materials like Glass, carbon etc. mostly fails in debonding if used without any anchorage. On the other hand, low strength FRP materials like hemp, Sisal, Cotton, Basalt, etc., utilize the full tensile strength of composite and resulting in rupture failure mode.

I hope this explanation may help you to understand the FRP behaviour.

Regards,

Pravin

Thank you very much @

Thank you gentlemen for the valuable information Vasant Matsagar P. Pravin Kumar Venkat Rao Shashikant Kumar

Dear Christi,

I just came across your very interesting technical question. I fully agree with the other expert RG members in that there is no single "perfect" FRP (= Fiber-Reinforced Polymer). The variety of known FRPs is just too large. For a highly instructive overview of this field please have a look at the following useful article:

Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Composites:

Manufacturing, Properties, and Applications

This paper has been published Open Access, so that it is freely accessible as pdf file (see attachment).

A large number of other helpful references about this topic can also be found and accessed by searching the "Publications" section of RG. Simply search for the term "Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Composites" and then click on "Publications":

https://www.researchgate.net/search.Search.html?type=publication&query=Fiber-Reinforced%20Polymer%20Composites

A large number useful articles about this topic have been posted by RG members, many of them even as public full texts.

I hope this helps. Good luck with your research work and best wishes!

Dear Christi Singaram I recommend you to study the review articles related to FRP. Generally, in review papers we can easily find the comparison between different studies published so far.

I hope it will helps you.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/search?qs=fiber%20reinforced%20polymer&articleTypes=REV&lastSelectedFacet=articleTypes

Hi, to choose the type of FRP materials, you should also consider economic issues. Economic efficiency is a very important issue in the implementation of projects. There are many reasons for choosing the type of composite materials.

Good luck

Milad