Construction sector is one of the largest markets for fibre reinforced polymers (FRPs) globally. FRP composites are used in a wide range of applications in construction ranging from rehabilitation of existing structures to the full-scale use for new projects because of the benefits they provide over conventional building materials. Such advantages include but not limited to lightness, high mechanical performance and possibility of production in any shape, ease of installation and lesser requirement for supporting structure, controlled anisotropy, high specific strength and specific stiffness. All these multifarious features of FRPs are knocking the doors for new avenues of myriad applications in the Construction Industry, but unfortunately polymeric composites are susceptible to heat and moisture when operating in changing environmental conditions dispelling the biggest myth of them being invincible. The heat response of FRPs is also a major issue of importance in dictating the fate of FRPs future acceptability and applicability. This paper thus attempts to review the specific areas of the current utilization trend of FRPs in the Construction Industry and draw their advantages to support the future applications in a variety of construction processes. It is also being attempted to juxtapose the applicability and the durability concerns of FRPs in a single literature for assessing the versatility and scope of FRPs, by shedding light on the past available studies on the related matter.

In this study, wind data of eleven years (2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012) has been used to determine wind characteristics of Saudi Arabian city Jeddah. These characteristics include the daily, monthly and annual wind speed, wind probability density distribution, shape (k) and scale (c) parameters at 10 m height. The analysis revealed that yearly values of k ranged from 1.398 to 1.763 with a mean value of 1.590 and values of scale parameter c varied from 3.146 to 4.329 with mean value of 3.95. Furthermore, the results showed that maximum and minimum wind power potential was observed in the month of March and February, respectively. The wind was found to be blowing predominantly from south east direction. It was found that wind potential of the region can be used for small scale off-grid wind applications.

An electrochemical technique is developed to activate graphene oxide (GO) at relatively low temperature and assemble it into porous electrodes. The activation process is carried out in molten KOH by switching the polarity between 2 symmetrical GO electrodes. The electrochemically activated graphene (ECAG) showed specific surface area as high as 2170 m 2 g -1 and nanometer-sized pore created at a temperature as low as 450 °C. The ECAG electrode shows a significant enhancement in the electrochemical activity and thus improved electrochemical performance when being used as electrodes in supercapacitors and capacitive deionization (CDI) cells. A specific capacitance of 275 F g -1 is obtained in 6M KOH electrolyte, and 189 F g -1 in 1 M NaCl electrolyte, which maintains 95% after 5000 cycles. The desalination capacity of the electrodes was evaluated by a batch mode electrosorption experiment. The ECAG electrode was able to remove 14.25 mg of salts per gram of the active materials and satisfy high adsorption rate of 2.01 mg g -1 min -1 . The low energy consumption of the CDI system is demonstrated by its high charge efficiency, which is estimated to be 0.83.

In the present work the optimal materials selection for wind turbine blades using the Cambridge Engineering Selector (CES) program was carried out. Materials indices were derived, based on the mechanical, physical properties and environmental circumstances. Glass and carbon fibre reinforced plastics (epoxy matrix) showed high materials indices based on combined analysis of power and efficiency, fracture toughness, fatigue and thermal stability. Epoxy-glass fibre (EGF) and epoxy-carbon fibre (ECF) composites were manufactured and investigated. Surface of glass and carbon fibre was chemically modified using gamma-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (Silane A1100) coupling agent. The fibre content was varied between 12 to 70% w/w. It is found that the addition of (Silane A1100) as a compatibilizer caused further amelioration of the fibre/matrix bonding resulting in improved mechanical behaviour, which was also, assessed using scanning electron microscopy. Mechanical properties of treated and untreated epoxy composites were illustrated using CES program. Tensile strength of EGF composites was varied based on fibres surface treatment and loadings. Tensile strength of silane treated EGF (70% wt/wt) increased to 1.46 GPa comparing with 1.38 GPa of untreated EGF. The potential and applications of this class of composite materials promise a significant opportunity for improving structural properties of wind turbine blades.

The specific properties of fibre reinforced polymers give them a lot of advantages over traditional materials but the long life of polymeric composites poses serious environmental threats raising sustainability concerns. The other issue of importance concerning the innovators and environmentalists in the mass usage of this material is its health impacts on human beings. This paper thus attempts to highlight and surface out the issues related to fibre reinforced polymers’ sustainability and their health impacts on human beings, by reviewing past studies on the subject, to examine critically the extensive body of published data, prior observations and ideas on the subject in order to identify and analyse those features that are intrinsic and unique to fibre reinforced polymers. This would thus serve as a conceptual model for future research on fibre reinforced polymer composites sustainability and health concerns.

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Traditional building materials may not be appropriate in view of the urgency in dealing with flash flood victims which need for immediate replacement of destroyed housing at a reasonable cost. Thus, the solution lies in making the best use of lightweight sandwich composite technology for flash flood victims lost residence in a short time. Therefore, this research focuses on comprehensive comparisons in bending of LWF sandwich/concrete (RC) composite beams. The flexural response of the LWF/RC beams is investigated in terms of crack load, load-deflection curves, stiffness, energy absorption capacity, ductility index, ultimate flexural load-to-weight ratio, load-strain curves, crack patterns, number of cracks, average crack width, crack spacing, and the failure mode. The test results reveal the remarkable enhancement in the flexural behavior and potential application for reconstruction of flash flood victims lost residence utilizing lightweight sandwich composite technology. The method outlined by ACI Building Code is used to compute ultimate moment capacities. The results obtained using this method are compared with the experimental results.