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CICE 2010 - The 5th International Conference on FRP Composites in Civil Engineering

September 27-29, 2010, Beijing, China

Bond Strength of FRP Rebar to Concrete: Effect of Concrete


Confinement
Shahriar Quayyum & Ahmad Rteil (ahmad.rteil@ubc.ca)
School of Engineering, The University of British Columbia, Kelowna, BC, Canada

ABSTRACT According to ACI 440.1R-06, the presence of transverse reinforcement does not affect the bond
strength of fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) rebar to concrete. This conclusion was based on a limited number of data
(19 confined beam tests) available in literature at the time. In the present study, 177 beam bond test data, failed by
concrete splitting, was collected to investigate the effect of concrete confinement on the bond strength with FRP rebar.
Of these 177 beam-type specimens, 105 specimens had transverse reinforcement. It was observed that the presence of
transverse reinforcement increased the bond strength of FRP rebar to concrete by 10%-15%, which eventually decreases
the development length needed for attaining the tensile strength of FRP rebar. A linear regression was performed on
the collected data to develop an equation to determine the bond strength of FRP rebar to concrete in presence of
transverse reinforcement and the equation was compared with the ACI 440.1R-06 equation and the experimental
results. Based on the analysis, it was found that the proposed equation is in good agreement with the experimental
results and it yields a better estimate of bond strength than the ACI 440.1R-06 equation.
KEY WORDS

1 INTRODUCTION the rebar in concrete. This equation was developed from


Studies on bond behavior of steel reinforcement have the study by Wambeke and Shield (2006) in which a
demonstrated that the presence of transverse reinforcement linear regression was performed on 67 beam-type
confines developed and spliced bars by limiting the specimen data which failed by concrete splitting. Forty
eight (48) of these specimens were unconfined and 19
progression of splitting cracks and, thus, increases the
were confined. From this study, it was found that the bar
bond force required to cause failure (Tepfers 1973;
surface did not appear to affect the results, nor
Orangun et al. 1977; Darwin and Graham 1993a, b).
surprisingly did the presence of confining reinforcement.
ACI 408R-03 proposed an equation for estimating the
Darwin et al. (1996) found that confining steel used in
bond strength of steel rebar based on the study of
beams that had steel reinforcing bars with a high relative
Orangun et al. (1975) which takes into account the
rib area had more of a beneficial increase in the bond
effect of transverse reinforcement. Fiber reinforced force over the same-size steel bars with moderate rib
polymer (FRP) rebars have been recently used in area. The counterargument was proposed in Wambeke
concrete to increase its durability. However, there are and Shield’s (2006) study. The GFRP bars have a very
only few literature studies available on the effect of low relative rib area and, therefore, the presence of
concrete confinement of FRP rebar. Due to the limited confinement may not increase the average bond stress.
availability of experimental data, no definite relationship Additional research into the effect of confining
can be established between transverse reinforcement and reinforcement on bond of FRP bars, however, was
bond strength for FRP rebar. ACI 440.1R-06 proposed recommended.
the following bond strength equation of FRP rebar to The study reported herein provides an investigation
concrete (in SI units): on the effect of the presence of transverse reinforcement
d on the bond strength of FRP rebar to concrete based on
u c b
0.33  0.025  8.3 (1) 177 beam test data (105 confined and 72 unconfined)
fc d
b
l
embed which included carbon, glass and aramid FRP rebars
c
with different surface texture (sand coated, spiral wrap,
where u is the bond strength of FRP rebar to concrete,
helical lug) and which failed by concrete splitting.
fc´ is the compressive strength of concrete, c is the lesser
of the cover to the center of the bar or one-half of the
center-on-center spacing of the bars being developed, db 2 DESCRIPTION OF THE DATABASE
is the bar diameter and lembed is the embedment length of In this study, a database of 177 beam-type specimen was

L. Ye et al. (eds.), Advances in FRP Composites in Civil Engineering


© Tsinghua University Press, Beijing and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011
582 Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on FRP Composites in Civil Engineering

created from the available literature. Only beam-type u c d


c 0.03  0.14  9.0 b (2)
specimens that failed by concrete splitting were fc d l
considered. These specimens consisted of beam end c b embed
specimens, beam anchorage specimens, and splice where uc is the bond strength of unconfined FRP rebars
specimens. The data included glass, carbon and aramid to concrete (i.e. due to concrete cover only). When the
FRP rebars with different surface textures such as sand predicted values were plotted with the experimental
coated, spiral wrap and helical lugs. Table 1 shows the values (Figure 1), it was found that the bond strength values
breakdown of the database with respect to type of FRP obtained from the proposed equation are very close to
and surface texture. A complete listing of all the data for the actual test results. The ACI equation is also in close
each test can be found in Quayyum (2010). proximity to the proposed equation. The average of the
ratio of experimental to predicted values was found to
Table 1 Classification of the specimens with respect to type of be 0.92 with a standard deviation of 0.22 which is quite
FRP and surface texture of rebar
reasonable. Thus, Equation (2) can provide a reasonable
GFRP CFRP AFRP Total estimate of bond strength of FRP rebar to concrete.
Spiral wrap 56 1 3 60
Helical lug 62 12 3 77
Sand coated 10 28 2 40
Total 128 41 8 177

The nominal diameter of the rebars ranged from 8


mm (0.3 in) to 29 mm (1.2 in). The compressive
strength of the concrete for the beam tested ranged from
27 MPa (3900 psi) to 66 MPa (9600 psi). Eighty five
percent (85%) of the specimens had concrete cover
between one and three bar diameters and the embedment
lengths of all the specimens ranged between 4 to 116 bar
diameters. The database included both confined and
unconfined beam tests on top and bottom bars (105
confined bottom, 50 unconfined bottom and 22 Figure 1 Test vs predicted average bond stress for unconfined
unconfined top bars). There were 105 beam tests that bottom bar specimens failed by concrete splitting
contained transverse reinforcement. The nominal
diameter of the steel stirrups used in the specimens
4 CONFINED BEAM TESTS WITH
varied between 8 mm (0.3 in) to 11.3 mm (0.6 in) with a
SPLITTING FAILURES
spacing between 78 mm (3 in) and 150 mm (6 in) and
all of the tests were performed on bottom bars. Thus the In this study, there were 105 beam-type specimens which
database contains an adequate representation of the had transverse reinforcement and failed by concrete
different parameters that appear to influence bond splitting. From the accumulated data, it was found that
performance of FRP rebar to concrete and therefore, the the presence of transverse reinforcement had certain
data can be thought to be sufficient to perform statistical positive impact on the bond behavior of the specimens.
analysis. Figure 2 shows the normalized average bond stress
plotted against normalized embedment length for both
confined and unconfined specimens which failed by
3 UNCONFINED BEAM TESTS WITH concrete splitting. Figure 2 clearly shows that the presence
SPLITTING FAILURES of transverse reinforcement increased the overall bond
There were 72 unconfined beam tests that failed by strength of FRP rebar to concrete.
splitting of the concrete. Of these 72 tests, 22 tests were The increase in bond strength can be regarded as the
performed on specimens where the bars were cast as top strength of an unconfined rebar plus the strength
bars. These 22 tests were not used to develop the bond contributed by the transverse reinforcement (Orangun et
strength equation. Using the same approach as Orangun al. 1975). The transverse reinforcement contribution (utr)
et al. (1975), a linear regression analysis on the to bond stress was calculated by subtracting uc, as
normalized cover (cover to the center of the bar divided determined from equation (2), from the total bond stress
by the nominal bar diameter) and the inverse of the achieved in a confined splice test, uconfined i.e. utr=
normalized embedment length was used to develop uconfined - uc. The value of utr normalized by square root
Equation (2) from the 50 beam tests on bottom bars. of fc´ was plotted against Atr/sndb for the bars considered
September 27–29, 2010, Beijing, China 583

required development length) by 10-15%. This will


reduce the amount of FRP material to be used in
construction and hence, decrease the overall cost of
construction. This in turn will encourage the use of FRP
rebars in construction projects.

Figure 2 Normalized average bond stress plotted against


normalized embedment length for bottom bar specimens failed by
concrete splitting

(Figure 3). The straight line fit proposed led to the


following equation:
Figure 3 Effect of transverse reinforcement for 105 confined
u A
tr 2.9 tr (3) tests with splitting failures
snd
f' b
c
Where Atr is the area of transverse reinforcement normal
to the plane of splitting through the bars, s is the center
to center spacing of the transverse reinforcement and n
is the number of bars being developed along the plane of
splitting.
The total bond strength of a FRP bar with transverse
reinforcement was determined by combining Equations
(2) and (3) as follows:
u c d A
0.03  0.14  9.0 b  2.9 tr (4)
f cc db lembed sndb

Equation (4) gives bond strength values for FRP rebar


to concrete for splitting mode of failure. Figure 4
presents comparison of the proposed equation against
Figure 4 Test vs predicted average bond stress for confined
the ACI 440.1R-06 equation and the test results.
bottom bar specimens failed by concrete splitting
It was observed that ACI 440.1R-06 equation
underestimates the bond strength of FRP rebars to
concrete in presence of transverse reinforcement which 5 CONCLUSION
has not been taken into consideration for the development The study reported herein provides an investigation on
of the ACI 440.1R-06 equation. On the other hand, the the effect of transverse reinforcement on the bond
proposed equation takes into account the effect of strength of FRP rebar to concrete. It was observed that
transverse reinforcement and hence, it gives less the presence of transverse reinforcement increases the
conservative estimate of bond strength than the ACI bond force of FRP rebar to concrete. The increase in
440.1R-06 equation. Also, the proposed equation shows bond force was about 10-15% which eventually will
good agreement with the test results and the perfect fit decrease the development length needed to acquire the
line which gives indication about the satisfactoriness of desired tensile strength of the rebar. Hence, the presence
the equation. The proposed equation results in shorter of transverse reinforcement should be taken into
development length required to achieve the tensile consideration while calculating the development length
strength of FRP rebar because it takes advantage of the of FRP rebar. Based on the analysis, an equation was
presence of confinement. It was found that the proposed developed for evaluating the bond strength of FRP rebar
equation can increase the bond strength (or reduce the to concrete and it was found that the proposed equation
584 Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on FRP Composites in Civil Engineering

is in good agreement with the actual test results and it height and spacing on bond strength of reinforcing bars. SL
gives less conservative estimate of bond strength than Report 93-1, University of Kansas Center for Research,
the equation proposed by ACI 440.1R-06 in presence of Lawrence, Kans., 68 pp.
transverse reinforcement. In short, the proposed Orangun, C. O., Jirsa, J. O., and Breen, J. E. 1975. The strength of
equation can provide a more cost effective design than anchor bars: a reevaluation of test data on development length
the equations reported in the current literature. and splices. Research Report 154-3F, Center for Highway
Research, The University of Texas Austin, Austin, Tex., 78 pp.
REFERENCES Orangun, C. O., Jirsa, J. O., and Breen, J. E. 1977. Reevaluation
ACI Committee 408, 2003. Bond and development length of of test data on development length and splices. ACI Journal,
straight reinforcing bars in tension (ACI 408R-03). American Proceedings V. 74, No. 3: 114-122.
Concrete Institute, Farmington Hills, MI, 49 pp. Quayyum, S. 2010. Bond-slip modeling of FRP rebars in concrete.
ACI Committee 440, 2006. Guide for the design and construction MS Thesis (in progress). The University of British Columbia,
of structural concrete reinforced with FRP bars (ACI 440.1R-06). Kelowna, BC, Canada.
American Concrete Institute, Farmington Hills, MI, 44 pp. Tepfers, R. 1973. A theory of bond applied to overlapping tensile
Darwin, D., Zuo, J., Tholen, M., and Idun, E. 1996. Development reinforcement splices for deformed bars. Publication 73:2.
length criteria for conventional and high relative rib area Division of Concrete Structures, Chalmers University of
reinforcing bars. ACI Structural Journal, V. 93, No. 3: 347-359. Technology, Goteborg, Sweden, 328 pp.
Darwin, D., and Graham, E. K. 1993a. Effect of deformation Wambeke, B. W., and Shield, C. K. 2006. Development length of
height and spacing on bond strength of reinforcing bars. ACI glass fiber-reinforced polymer bars in concrete. ACI Structural
Structural Journal, V. 90, No. 6: 646-657. Journal, V. 103, No. 1: 11-17.
Darwin, D., and Graham, E. K. 1993b. Effect of deformation

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