Steel-concrete bond, cracking and spalling of the concrete cover

Bond between steel and concrete is a fundamental topic for understanding and modeling the behaviour of reinforced and prestressed concrete structures. Physical models allowing to understand and model this phenomenon in various regimes have been proposed by several authors. At the Structural Concrete Laboratory, the phenomenon of bond has been investigated from several perspectives, for instance:

Study of bond in the elastic and elasto-plastic regimes, with an integration of the general analytical bond-slip laws with the hypothesis of an affinity between the stress-strain profiles.

Study of crack opening after loading-unloading cycles.

Study of the phenomenon of spalling of the concrete cover due to bond of ribbed bars, with application to curved elements.

Adherence phenomena and their characterization

Reference publications

Analytical bond model

Fernández Ruiz M., Muttoni A., Gambarova P., Analytical modelling of the pre- and post-yield behaviour of bond in reinforced concrete, ASCE Journal of Structural Engineering, Vol. 133, N° 10, Reston, USA, 2007, pp. 1364-1372.

Influence of anchorage type and concrete cracking

Brantschen F., Faria D. M. V., Fernández Ruiz M., Muttoni A., Bond Behaviour of Straight, Hooked, U-Shaped and Headed Bars in Cracked Concrete, Structural Concrete, 17 No. 5, 2016, pp. 799-810.

Influence of bond on cover spalling

Fernández Ruiz M., Plumey S., Muttoni A., Interaction between Bond and Deviation Forces in Spalling Failures of Arch-Shaped Members without Transverse Reinforcement, ACI Structural Journal, V. 107, USA, 2010, pp. 346-354.

Influence loading-unloading cycles on crack opening

Muttoni A., Fernández Ruiz M., Concrete Cracking in Tension Members and Application to Deck Slabs of Bridges, ASCE Journal of Bridge Engineering, 12, USA, 2007, pp. 646-653.