Herning bridge, an 90m footbridge in Denmark, will be built as a cable stayed structure with a tower holding the cfrp reinforced concrete deck by means of 40mm diameter pultruded cfrp cables tested to a capacity of 100tons. The bridge will be monitored electronically with all cable stays equipped with strain gages, whilst the cfrp reinforcement in the deck will have vibration wire gages. A change in pitch will reveal a change in stress.
A glass/carbon fiber hybrid structure using Hetron resin has been used by Morrison Fiber Glass co. to manufacture pultruded Ⅰ–beams for an 18m long footbridge.
Mistsubishi Chemical manufactures a seismic retrofit material Replark and have formed a joint venture with Fiberite in the USA. Teplark is a UD carbon fiber tape with low epoxy resin content with a fiberglass scrim backing to facilitate handing in the field. The application entails the preparation of the concrete, application of an epoxy primer, putty and resin, followed by the requisite number of layers of Replark tape and additional resin, to form a cured composite and finally, the application of a surface coat to improve the appearance.
Carbon fibers in Glass matrices: Boccaccini and Gevorkian have advocated carbon fiber reinforced glass matrix composites as self lubricating materials for wear applications in a vacuum.
Carbon fibers in ceramic matrices: Hughes Aircraft patented a graphite fiber reinforced silica matrix composite, comprising of carbon fibers bonded together in a matrix of silica, boron phosphate and β-spodumene modified with a minor amount of an alkaline earth metal oxide. The extremely low coefficient of thermal expansion coupled with the moderate thermal conductivity and low density of the composite make the composite particularly suitable as a substrate material for high energy laser mirrors.