March 29 was a great day for FRP rebar at the American Concrete Institute Spring Convention in Chicago where the bi-annual FRP Concrete Beam Competition is held to introduce civil engineering students to designing and working with FRP “fiberglass” rebar. Six manufacturers from ACMA’s FRP Rebar Manufacturers Council provided rebar samples for the beam construction and financial support to make this event a success. There were 43 teams from around the world who competed. The winners were: 1st place: Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru, Peru, 2nd Place: West Pomeranian University of Technology in Szczecin, Poland, 3rd Place: Universidad de los Andes, Ecuador.
The 43 teams were from USA, Canada, Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Poland, Puerto Rico, Bangladesh, and Philippines. FRP Rebar suppliers included ACMA members who provided product and financial support are: MST-Bar, Neuvokas Corporation, Mateenbar, Pultrall, SFTec, Inc., Strongwell. Other members providing financial support are ExxonMobile and Jushi Canada. The concrete beams were evaluated on design, cost, presentation, meeting deadlines and following the rules. This event continues to be a highlight for the FRP community and the professors and students from the teams. This is always high initial interest from the student teams. The event has an emcee, teams are dressed in school colors and branding, and the excitement of breaking concrete beams. As you can imagine, lots of concrete pieces lying around the hotel ballroom floor!