A critical review of fiber reinforced polymer bars: a scientometric and visualization analysis

Fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) bars, due to their excellent mechanical and chemical properties, have emerged as environmentally friendly and low-carbon cleaner materials and are widely applied in the field of civil engineering. To precisely capture the development dynamics and trends in the field of FRP bars, this article selects the literature in the Web of Science core database (SCI, SSCI) as the research object. By employing bibliometric methods, a comprehensive analysis and summary of the relevant research progress of FRP bars were carried out. The annual publication volume, journal source distribution, country/regional distribution, institutional affiliation, author composition, highly cited papers, and cutting-edge research directions of the literature were emphatically examined. Moreover, the VOSviewer software was used to construct a knowledge graph. The study reveals essential information in the field of FRP bars, specifically including core data such as major journals, influential countries, institutions, and academic papers. Keyword analysis reveals that the durability of FRP bars is currently a hot topic of research. In addition, the mechanical properties of FRP bars under extreme conditions (e.g., high strain rates, strong corrosive environments, etc.) and the cross-application with machine learning and neural network technologies are considered as potential hotspots for future research in this field. Through bibliometric analysis, this paper systematically reviews the research history of FRP bars and provides reasonable planning suggestions for subsequent scholar in this field.