See a title in the forum of eng-tips.com, the author's original words, 

"

Title: 

Carbon Fibers and Steel Plate as an additional reinforcement 

Desrciption:

Good day,

I am on the retrofitting project, and I resorting in to two methods

1. to use a carbon fiber to reinforced the prestressed slab
2. to use a steel plate with epoxy resins 

Its the first time that I encounter these method. Do you have any good references or sample design regarding these methods?

thank you in advance

"

In the past, the structural reinforcement of buildings generally used the method of steel reinforcement. However, with the continuous development and progress of carbon fiber technology in recent years, the structural reinforcement of buildings has begun to be reinforced with carbon fiber cloth. To know that each building reinforcement method must have its own advantages and disadvantages, then which of the two methods of building carbon fiber reinforcement and stick steel reinforcement is better?

We can analyze the advantages and disadvantages of structrual carbon fiber reinforcement and stick steel reinforcement from several aspects.

In terms of scope of application, structural carbon fiber reinforcement is suitable for compressive, shear, flexural, seismic, and masonry structure reinforcement. In contrast, bonded steel reinforcement is more suitable for tensile reinforcement of concrete building components.

In terms of convenience of construction, carbon fiber cloth has many advantages. Carbon fiber cloth is easy to cut and construction is simple. The steel reinforcement is limited by materials, which makes its construction more difficult. Therefore, building carbon fiber reinforcement is more advantageous at this point. 

The weight of the material itself is also a point that must be considered in the project. Carbon fiber cloth is better, because carbon fiber cloth is lighter in weight and does not change the self-weight of the basic components. The steel plates used for steel bonding are not only cumbersome but also heavy in mass, and can easily affect the internal structure of the building.

In terms of construction cost, building carbon fiber reinforcement can be so popular because of its high cost performance, and the labor cost of bonded steel reinforcement is already very high.

Not only that, there are also big differences in the construction period. Structural carbon fiber reinforcement has little difficulty in the construction process and is very efficient. Due to the bulky construction materials, the steel-bonded steel reinforcement makes the construction difficult, so the overall construction time will be longer.

From these characteristics, the advantages of structural carbon fiber reinforcement are more obvious, and the actual building structure reinforcement needs to be considered in many aspects before selecting the reinforcement method