Tensile characterization of basalt fiber rods and ropes: A first contribution

Basalt is an emerging material, whose use is increasing in constructions and civil applications as an alternative to glass, carbon or aramidic fibers. Basalt Fiber Reinforced Polymer (BFRP) rods and Basalt Fiber (BF) ropes are going to be used as an alternative to glass, carbon or aramidic fibers for strengthening purposes but few information about their mechanical performances is present in literature and standard test protocols are missing. Thus, this work tries to provide a test protocol for tensile characterization of BF ropes and a validation of the test protocol used for tensile characterization of not-basalt-FRP rods applied on BFRP rods. This is a very important issue from an engineering standpoint in order to evaluate their applicability for architectural heritage retrofitting, as, for example, in repointing (rods), or in innovative techniques, such as the one actually still being tested in our laboratories, that is aimed to strengthen historic masonry (ropes). Experimental test results obtained are shown. Results seem to confirm that BFRP rods and BF ropes could be a good alternative to other similar products.