Assessment & Rehabilitation
Funds expended on repairing or retrofitting existing structures have, in recent years in North America, exceeded those spent on the construction of new facilities. This trend is expected to intensify, as our infrastructure continues to age and as society recognizes the prudence of striving towards sustainability in design and construction. Research is being done to develop new innovative materials and repair procedures. Material characterizations, field applications, and design procedures are being developed for externally applied fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) systems, internal non-corrosive FRP reinforcement systems, steel fibre reinforced concrete (FRC), steel-concrete (SC) composites and other advanced materials. From an analysis perspective, new technological challenges, more stringent performance-based design codes, aging infrastructure, and increasing concerns about extreme load conditions have combined to create a need for advanced software tools for the performance assessment of structures. Research is underway to develop and refine advanced analysis procedures to provide this capability. Finally, research is also being directed towards the development of health monitoring systems for new and existing structures.
Professors Working in this Area
