6. Applications

By optimally exploiting one or more of the material's properties - mechanical strength, durability, moldability, dimensional stability, weight savings - it is possible to develop applications in which BPR competes with many other materials, including steel, aluminum and cast iron. Its applications then go beyond the simple framework of building and civil engineering.

• Civil engineering and building :

  • triangulated structures: the Sherbrooke footbridge (figure 6 ) is a triangulated structure with a 60 m span. It illustrates one of the ways in which BPR is used: the quest for lightness combined with great rigidity, without...