Influence of Storage Conditions and Corrosive Environments on the Mechanical Properties of GFRP Rebars

A trend of applying composite reinforcement in construction industry has been growing in Russia recently: hence, new manufacturing plants have appeared and the volume of sales has increased. However there were not enough experimental studies of the polymer reinforcement chemical stability and the influence of various factors (climate, corrosive environments, nonstationary loading, etc.) on the strength of structures reinforced with polymer rebars. The objective of this investigation was to identify the influence of long-term storage conditions and exposure to corrosive environment (i.e. 5 % NaCl solution) produced on the mechanical properties of GFRP rebars.