The European Rebar Council (ERC) today announced a strategic partnership with ASDEA, a leading provider of structural engineering software, to provide advanced design tools that enable engineers to design reinforced concrete structures using composite rebar.
The collaboration will make available a free standard design software and an advanced version that allow engineers to design concrete structures reinforced with composite rebars. The software will be multicode compliant and available in multiple languages. The software will integrate with widely used structural engineering design platforms, enabling the seamless inclusion of composite reinforcement within existing design workflows.
By lowering the barriers to adoption and simplifying engineering calculations, the initiative aims to make composite rebar a practical and accessible solution for the European design community.
The partnership also provides flexibility for European Rebar Council (ERC) members. While the standard version will be freely available to designers, the advanced version will allow ERC member companies to collaborate with ASDEA to develop tailored versions of the tool. These customized versions may incorporate national design codes, country-specific regulatory frameworks, or company-specific composite material performance data, allowing manufacturers and engineering partners to support designers with more precise project inputs.
The European Rebar Council believes that providing accessible design tools is a critical step toward accelerating the adoption of composite reinforcement technologies in the European construction and infrastructure markets.
Composite rebar—such as Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) reinforcement—offers significant advantages compared to traditional steel reinforcement, including corrosion resistance, longer service life, and improved sustainability performance. These attributes make it particularly attractive for infrastructure exposed to aggressive environments such as marine structures, bridges, and transport infrastructure.
Through this partnership, the ERC and ASDEA aim to address one of the key barriers to wider adoption: practical engineering design tools that allow composite reinforcement to be incorporated easily into standard design practices.
Guido Camata (Partner and Founder of ASDEA S.r.l) and Chris Skinner ( ERC Chair)
Dr. Chris Skinner, Chairman of the European Rebar Council, commented: “One of the key challenges to wider adoption of composite reinforcement has been giving engineers the tools they need to design with confidence. By working with ASDEA to provide accessible, integrated design software, we are enabling designers across Europe to evaluate and implement composite rebar within familiar workflows.”
The initiative aligns with the mission of the European Rebar Council to promote the standardization, education, and adoption of composite reinforcement across European construction and infrastructure markets. The new design software will begin rolling out to the engineering community during 2026, with further developments planned as national codes evolve and additional material data becomes available.
The ERC is a sectorial alliance of EuCIA.
