Bond behavior of plain round bars embedded in concrete subjected to lateral tension

Owing to its importance in the design and assessment of reinforced concrete structures, it is essential to study the bond behavior of steel bars in concrete. This paper presents an experimental investigation into the bond behavior of plain round bars embedded in concrete subjected to lateral tension. The experimental results show that the normalized bond strength is a decreasing function of the average lateral tension. When the average lateral tension is 0.8 times the tensile strength of concrete, the normalized bond strength reduces by 54%. As the average lateral tension increases, the slip at the peak bond stress first increases and then keeps constant or decreases, depending on whether specimens are subjected to uniaxial or biaxial lateral tension. Finally, an empirical bond stress-slip relationship is proposed. For different strengths of concrete, bar diameters, and combinations of lateral tensions, the bond stress-slip relationship agrees well with the experimental results.