Risk Management in FRP-Strengthened Concrete Beams

Adopting risk management is a must, inevitable in all construction projects. Risk management is very important in retrofitting of the projects. Strengthening the reinforced concrete beams with respect to their type and how they are made is assessed in this study. Although both of the near-surface mounted (NSM) and externally bonded reinforcement (EBR) methods have advantages and disadvantages and it depends on the reinforced member and the project conditions, but in general, the NSM method outperforms the EBR while somehow (EBR) is adopted more. A researcher-designed questionnaire consists of ten restrictive factors regarding NSM implementation. The responding persons consist of skilled experts with at least five years of experience in this field. The execution of risk management in NSM, obstacles on the way of implementation, and the effect of risk management on the functionality of these factors are of concern here. The obtained data is assessed through statistical tests. The factors of more execution time, lack of experts, high volume, low knowledge on the client, uninformed employers, consultants and contractors about the existence of this method, complexities in the calculation, big calculating mass, concrete cover 5-7 cm, FRP rebar needed in NSM, high implementation cost and high FRP implementation cost are considered as the restrictive factors affecting NSM implementation. The initial assumption that the ten factors were restrictive as to NSM implementation led to proving that the factor of lack of information about this method within the client, contractor, and consultant was the most effective as a restriction. This proof was obtained through the statistical tests conducted on the assumptions.