Strengthening of Historic Structures with Advanced Composites: A Review

The unique advantages offered by FRP materials have made them ideal candidates for increasing the strength, stiffness and ductility characteristics of historic structures, especially in cases where traditional strengthening materials and techniques have proven inadequate and/or inapplicable. In this paper, which serves as an introduction to the papers for the special theme session on “Strengthening of Historic Structures with FRP”, the author presents a short overview of FRP applications to historic structures made of masonry, timber, metals (cast iron, steel) and concrete, with emphasis on concepts and key case studies.