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The use of advanced polymer composite (APC) materials to upgrade and to rehabilitate metallic structures offers an attractive solution for short-term retrofits and long-term rehabilitation. The basic principles of plate bonding metallic structures are similar to those used for the plate bonding of reinforced concrete (RC) structural units, but metallic adherends pose a different and a more difficult set of problems from those for RC systems.This paper reviews the problems encountered in plate bonding onto metallic structures and discusses how these problems might be overcome. Initially, the paper investigates some of the in-service problems associated with APC and metallic adherends and reviews their solutions. The weakest link in the bonded joint is the adhesive, and a review of the various solutions is included. Another potential area for concern is the durability of the APC and adhesive and a review of this area has been undertaken. The degradation of metallic structures has been covered in the literature, and consequently, this area is not covered. To date, few upgradings of metallic structures with APC plates, have been undertaken and generally these have not been published, therefore, a review of the practical applications of this technique to metallic structures is included, discussing some case histories.

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