Bond behaviour between recycled aggregate concrete and steel rebars

Thirty six pullout tests were carried out in order to investigate the bond behaviour between recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) and steel rebars. Three recycled coarse aggregate (RCA) replacement percentages (i.e., 0%, 50% and 100%) and two types of steel rebar (i.e., plain and deformed) were considered in this paper. Based on the test results, the influences of both RCA replacement percentages and the rebar surface on the bond strength between the RAC and steel rebars were investigated. It was found that under the equivalent mix proportion (i.e., the mix proportions are the same, except for different RCA replacement percentages), the bond strength between the RAC and the plain rebar decreases with an increase of the RCA replacement percentage, whereas the bond strength between the RAC and the deformed rebar has no obvious relation with the RCA replacement percentage. The empirical bond stress versus slip relationship between RAC and steel rebars was established through regression analysis using the experimental data.