Carbon Fibre – Reinforcing Concrete Buildings

7 April 2011
By Jeff Anderson

The upgrading of building structures, be it for structural rectification purposes, or for a change in use building use, has always been associated with a significant financial cost. Whilst the procedure may be inherently necessary, the cost associated with upgrade has often meant the proposed work is delayed. When the decision to go ahead is made, more often than not, steel and concrete have been the chosen methodology to achieve the outcome. Whilst the advantages of Carbon Fibre have been well documented for many years, it is often overlooked due to a perceived higher cost than the concrete/steel combination.

However, this is not necessarily always the case. In 2007, Remedial Building Services engaged the services of Mr D Beneke to help quantify the cost of the upgrade to an existing building in North Sydney (Australia). Analysis of the building and the required rectification found that through use of finite analysis, not only could the structural strength and load-bearing capacity of the building be enhanced through the use of carbon fibre, but the cost of the rectification could be recouped faster than alternative methods, making carbon fibre the preferred and most viable alternative.

The use of finite analysis in this instance demonstrated that through a clinical approach to the use of carbon fibre, not only is the technology better, but that use of it can actually lower the real cost to the project. The attached published paper quantifies how this can be achieved and documents a case study to a large building in North Sydney and how a system of optimization was used including the use of finite element analysis. This paper goes a long way to further demonstrating why carbon fibre stripping and binding is a valuable tool in viable building rectification.

Download our Cost Efficiencies of Carbon Fibre Paper now