Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Strengthening for Alternative Load Paths to Mitigate Progressive Collapse Vulnerabilities

This article looks at new testing and recently completed projects that use fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites in combination with innovative FRP composite anchors to establish continuity at beam-column connections, improving catenary action in the event a vertical component is lost. This retrofit scheme reduces the potential for progressive collapse and could be the best design solution for retrofitting existing structures vulnerable to failure because of the as-built reinforcement discontinuities. More importantly, this work broadens the scope of influence of FRP composites from local component strengthening in years past to more global structural strengthening through alternate load paths and/or structural redundancy.