Mapewrap System From Mapei

This is an inovative system for the strengthening and increased stability of load-bearing structures in reinforced concrete, masonry, wood and steel.
Mapewrap System
Mapewrap system is a complete system of products based on carbon fibres, glass fibres, metallic fibres and epoxy resins for the restoration and increased stability of reinforced and prestressed cement, steel and masonry structures.
Advantages
There are numerous advantages derived from the use of products from the Mapewrap system range compared with traditional repair technology, the most important are as follows:

• Quick and easy to lay: Mapewrap system are extremely low weight that can be applied without having to use any particular tools or equipment, with the use of only a small team of operators in an extremely short time and, quite often, without even having to interrupt use of the structures.
• High durability.
• No corros i on prob lems of the strengthening materials applied, unlike steel plates applied for localised repair operations using the beton plaque technique.
• No increase in mass of the structure. The interventions carried using the Mapewrap system does not increase the mass of strengthened structural elements; this aspect is extremely important, especially when applied for seismic protection, where the stresses are proportional to the mass involved.
• Increased ductility of the strengthened element.
• Reduced increase of the original thickness: the use of Mapewrap system does not cause a relevant increase of the original sizes. The increase of the original thickness is usually no more than 3-4mm.

FRP Materials
The team FRP stands of Fibre Reinforced Polymer. FRP’s are part of the larger family of “structural composites”,

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Mapei Construction Products India Pvt. Ltd.,
E: infoindia@mapei.co.in
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that is, those materials (including reinforced concrete), which are made up of two phases: strengthening in a noncontinuous form characterised by its high mechanical performance, and the matrix, in the form of a continuous element, and usually mechanically weaker. The particular characteristic of structural composites is that they offer better, or more “complete”, mechanical performances than those of the single component phases. In composites with a polymer matrix (FRPs for example), the matrix is usually made up of an epoxy resin, while the strengthening material is made up of carbon or glass fibres.
FRP in the Construction Industry
The use of FRP in the construction industry regards mainly the sector involved in static upgrading of deteriorated or damaged structures, and static upgrading for anti-seismic purposes. In this sector, the operational techniques based on the use of conventional materials are not without difficulty, and there are also doubts as to the durability of the intervention carried out.
With this in mind, a repair operation based on the use of high-performance composite materials is more economic than with the use of conventional materials, if we take into consideration the time and equipment required for the intervention, costs deriving from interruption to use of the structure and an estimate of the service life of the structure after the intervention.
Types of FRP
The main parameter, which defines the characteristics of FRP fibre strengthening is not its tensile strength, which is far higher than the loads to which FRP strengthening is subjected to, but rather the material’s modulus of elasticity. The higher the modulus of elasticity of the fibres, the higher the amount of rigidity they may supply. The most suitable fibres for use in the restoration of reinforced cement structures are mediumstrength carbon fibres (tensile yield strength > 2,000 MPa) with a medium to high modulus of elasticity (up to 250GPa). For the restoration of masonry buildings and wooden structures, characterised by a lower modulus of elasticity, it is better to use fibre composites with a lower modulus of elasticity than carbon fibres. In this case, therefore, it is better to use glass fibre-based composites, characterised by a modulus of elasticity lower than 80GPa, which means that they are more compatible with masonry supports from an elastic mechanical point of view. As far as the polymer matrix is concerned, epoxy resins are preferable to polyester ones, especially because they bond better to cementitious substrates.