Carbon Fiber Strengthening
The high-modulus system, and the flexural work it gets chosen for.
Carbon fiber strengthening is strengthening primarily for flexural applications due to it's high modulus for additional capacity with designed with the existing steel and concrete strength and can be coated to protect and also fire proofed. The material has over twice the strength of gr 60 steel and is very compact when applied. The system works extremely well on strengthening beams for flexural upgrades in high rise buildings needing to upgrade for additional loads due to rolling file cabinet additions and in hospitals for the addition of equipment such as MRIs.
Repair and retrofit, not only new capacity
Not every carbon fiber retrofit is about carrying more than before. A large share of this work is carbon fiber repair — a member that has lost section or reinforcement to corrosion and needs the capacity it was designed with put back, rather than increased. The design case is different; the installation is the same. CFRP strengthening covers both, because the laminate does not care whether the deficit arrived with a change of use or with thirty years of exposure.
Design and installation from one contractor
Delta is the strengthening contractor, not a material supplier working through applicators. The FRP design is sealed through independent structural engineers, the specifications, stamped drawings and calculations are produced alongside them, and the system is installed by Delta’s own trained technicians rather than subcontracted labour. Review of a potential application for feasibility, and a budgetary proposal for the job, are provided at no cost and no obligation.
Over twice the strength of grade 60 steel, in a system thin enough that the headroom does not change.
- 01
Flexural Strengthening
Negative and positive moment enhancement on beams and slabs, and supplementing reinforcing steel that was cut or misplaced.
- 02
Added Load Demand
Meet the project’s new load requirements, with feasibility carried out first to determine the best methodology for strengthening the structure.
- 03
Column Strengthening
Shear, displacement-ductility enhancement, flexural and moment increase, axial load enhancement and torsion strengthening.
- 04
Slab Strengthening
Punching shear, shear transfer between members, negative and positive moment, new openings, and diaphragm shear strengthening.
- 05
Fire Rating
The finished system covered with a UL rated fire coating, in Delta’s work typically to a two to four hour rating.
- 06
Material Standard
Designed to ACI 440, with material specifications incorporating ICBO approval and the controls set out in AC125.
Carbon fiber on record
- Miller Coors, Fort Worth — carbon fiber strips to the top and bottom of an elevated slab carrying new production equipment, and FRP around future slab penetrations for pipe chases and drains.
- University of Tennessee Hospital — a slab strengthened for the dead loads of an expanded floor above, installed inside a working pharmacy that shut down at night.
- LSU University Medical Center — the underside of a second floor slab externally reinforced for piping hangers too heavy for the original structure, with the cement based fire protection sprayed in the same week.
- Anniston Army Depot, Alabama — a single ply of carbon fiber reinforced polymer at all thirty-two girder and bearing locations of a bridge.
- Sandia National Laboratories, New Mexico — a shield wall strengthened with CFRP where replacing it would not fit the construction schedule or the budget.
