CARBON FIBERS AND THEIR APPLICATION IN CIVIL ENGINEERING 7 from 7

Most countries including India still haven’t properly developed the design and construction specifi- cations for carbon fiber integration in the current technology.
There is enormous scope of use of carbon fibers in India, because of seismically deficient buildings, long coast line and long monsoon season pressing the use of noncorrosive CFRP.
Traditional materials, such as wood, are in short supply There are very few examples of CFRP application for retrofitting before Gujarat earthquake (2001) and it was only after thisearth- quake that the technique started gaining attention in India.
However, the same is not to the extent warranted by the existing potential of the carbon fibers.
As the material is still considered relatively new in this part of the world, most of the works have been carried out in accordance with the limited available guidelines and published literature.
At this juncture, there is a need of Government-Industry-Institute partnership to exploit full potential of CFRP so that the technology can be popularly used to breathe new life into failing structures through expeditious, cost effective design and construction.