Corrosion-induced cracking and bond behaviour of corroded reinforcement bars in SFRC

This paper investigates, experimentally and numerically, the effect of fibre reinforcement on the initiation of corrosion-induced cracks in concrete and the bond behaviour of corroded reinforcement bars in fibre reinforced concrete. The fibres, due to their confining effect, contributed to delay crack initiation, improve the post-peak bond behaviour and retain the initial splitting strength for corrosion levels of up to 8%. The mechanisms for delayed crack initiation were explained through 3D finite element analyses of the experiments whereas a 1D model, using experimental bond-slip curves as an input, was employed to quantify the beneficial effect of fibres on the reinforcement anchorage length.