Bar-concrete bond in mixes containing calcium carbide residue, fly ash and recycled concrete aggregate

A mixture of calcium carbide residue and fly ash (CRFA) is an innovative new binder for concrete instead of using ordinary Portland cement (OPC). Therefore, this study aims at investigating the bond interaction between common steel reinforcing bars and the aforementioned concrete. To this end, both CRFA and OPC concretes using crushed limestone and recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) as a coarse aggregate were prepared to investigate the bond strength of smooth and deformed bars by pull-out tests. The bond stress−slip relationships were also identified to determine the effects of CRFA binder and RCA on the bond strength behavior. The results indicate that the values the of bond-slip behavior and bond strengths of steel bar in CRFA concretes are similar to those embedded in OPC concrete. Moreover, the bond strength was significantly affected by RCA and the types of steel bar. Although the concretes had the same compressive strengths, the deformed bar embedded in CRFA concrete with RCA had a lower bond strength than the one with crushed limestone. However, the reduction in bond strength of the CRFA concrete with RCA was still less than that of OPC concrete with RCA. For the CRFA concretes, the bond strengths of the deformed bars were approximately 1.7-3.6 times higher than that of smooth bars.