Composite wraps for ageing infrastructure: Concrete columns

The post-war boom years were when much of Australia's current infrastructure was constructed. However, there are now doubts as to the durability and structural integrity of this construction, and composite repairs may well be one method for addressing the problems of an ageing infrastructure. To this end the present paper evaluates the ability of externally bonded composite wraps to increase the load-carrying capacity of concrete columns. Tests are performed under a range of environmental conditions. Both glass and Kevlar wraps are considered. In this study the failure loads were found to be relatively unaffected by the environmental conditions with failure occurring when the wraps reached a critical strain level.