Standards, Specifications and Reports

ASTM Standards

ASTM's composite standards are instrumental in the evaluation and determination of the physical, shear, tensile, flexural, and compressive properties of various forms of composite materials used in structural applications. These composites can be in the form of sandwich core materials, honeycomb core materials, polymer matrix composite materials and their laminates, fiber-reinforced polymer-matrix composite plates and bars, fiber reinforced metal matrix composites, carbon fiber-epoxy prepregs, continuous filament carbon and graphite fiber tows, hoop wound polymer matrix composite cylinders, sandwich beams, flat composite panels, simply supported sandwich composite plates, and fabric-reinforced textile composite materials. These composite standards are also helpful in guiding manufacturers and users of such materials in their proper fabrication and testing for the assurance of their quality.

ASTM’s standards for building with composites are available for purchase at https://www.astm.org/Standards/composite-standards.html.

ACMA’s FRP Guidelines

The 2016 edition of Guidelines and Recommended Practices for Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) Architectural Products, published by ACMA, is the culmination of a major initiative by ACMA’s Architectural Division to update the original edition of guidelines released in 1997. These guidelines and recommendations address the application of composites in architecture and help architects better understand how, when, where and why to use composites. They also include the characteristics of FRP composites, fabrication processes, design consideration, tolerances, quality assurance, loading, delivery and installation.

Other Specifications

U.S. Department of Transportation – Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)

For more than 25 years, the FHWA, AASHTO, and NCHRP has researched and demonstrated the use of fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composites. FHWA provides a resource for engineers under the Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) Composite Bridge Technology section of their website. In addition to a project database using FRP composites, FHWA has a library of documents and other information that reports on the use and performance of FRP composites. For more information, visit www.fhwa.dot.gov/bridge/frp/.

American Concrete Institute (ACI)

ACI has a number of publications of technical papers that document use of FRP composites in concrete applications. To obtain a copy of the documents below, visit ACI publications at www.concrete.org.

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