Application of Glass Fiber in Giant Statue

The Giant, also known as The Emerging Man, is an impressive new sculpture by Yas Bay Waterfront Development in Abu Dhabi. The giant is a concrete sculpture consisting of a head and two hands sticking out of the water. The diameter of the bronze head alone reaches 8 meters.

The sculpture was fully reinforced with Mateenbar™ and then shotcrete on site. Since less concrete cover is required when using GFRP rebar, a minimum concrete cover of 40mm was specified. No corrosion protection is required when using Mateenbar™ due to its corrosion resistance and high chemical resistance.
Sculpture and structural elements need to be highly durable and require no maintenance or repair during their lifetime.

The following environmental factors were considered when choosing Mateenbar™ as the best reinforcement material for this project:
1. The high salinity of the Arabian Gulf ocean.
2. Wind and high humidity.
3. Hydrodynamic loads from waves, sea level rise and storm surges.
4. Sea water temperature in the bay ranges from 20ºC to 40ºC.
5. Air temperature from 10ºC to 60ºC.

Mateenbar™ was chosen as the ideal reinforcement solution to eliminate the risk of corrosion and extend the design life cycle without maintenance. And provide a design life cycle of 100 years. Concrete additives such as silica fume are not required when using GFRP rebar. Bends are manufactured at the factory and delivered on site. The total used weight of Mateenbar™ is about 6 tons. If the giant project uses steel bars, the total weight will be about 20 tons. The lightweight advantage saves labor and transportation costs.

Suntex Composite Industrial Co., Ltd is specialized in making safe heat-resistant textiles.
Our factory is in Jiangsu, China, which has a strong tradition of textile making combined with an experienced workforce.