What baffles me (as someone working in Advanced Composites) is why not simply get rid of the steel, the steel-concrete interface, the chloride ion and corrosion problem altogether — by instead using rebar made of composites?
Rebar of fiberglass, carbon fiber, basalt, and other combinations is all redily available and has known properties.
The key issue is that steel will corrode, then expand and put the concrete in tension (which concrete sucks at reacting), causing the concrete to crack, then spall off. None of the composites do this.
Yet, despite composites being available for years, and even being cheaper than steel [0], they are being picked up at remarkably slow rates.
It seem blindingly obvious to me that everyone should have just switched some time ago. Yet, this has not happened. Why?
[0] https://ernestmaier.com/is-fiberglass-rebar-more-affordable-...
Rebar of fiberglass, carbon fiber, basalt, and other combinations is all redily available and has known properties.
The key issue is that steel will corrode, then expand and put the concrete in tension (which concrete sucks at reacting), causing the concrete to crack, then spall off. None of the composites do this.
Yet, despite composites being available for years, and even being cheaper than steel [0], they are being picked up at remarkably slow rates.
It seem blindingly obvious to me that everyone should have just switched some time ago. Yet, this has not happened. Why?
[0] https://ernestmaier.com/is-fiberglass-rebar-more-affordable-...