Construction and Building Materials 47 (2013) 927–934

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Construction and Building Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat

Structural reliability of bonding between steel rebars and recycled

aggregate concrete
Marco Breccolotti ⇑, Annibale Luigi Materazzi
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, via G. Duranti, 93, 06125 Perugia, Italy

h i g h l i g h t s

 The bond strength between recycled aggregate concrete and deformed steel rebars is investigated.
 The correctness of the current design equations for the evaluation of bond in RAC is checked.
 The structural reliability of bonding between recycled aggregate concrete and deformed steel rebars is evaluated.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Unlike compressive strength, the bond between Recycled Aggregate Concrete (RAC) and steel rebars is a
Received 10 July 2012 topic not completely understood by researchers, although it is one of the fundamental factors affecting
Received in revised form 26 April 2013 the mechanical behaviour of reinforced concrete structures. For this reason, a theoretical and experimen-
Accepted 5 May 2013
tal investigation of the structural reliability of the bonding between reinforcing steel and RAC has been
undertaken and is presented in this paper, which consists of two consecutive parts. In the first part, the
results of an experimental study aimed at comparing the bond strength of natural and recycled aggregate
Keywords:
concrete are described. In the second part, a reliability analysis is carried out to determine whether the
Concrete
Bonding
existing design formulas for the anchorage length and lap splice can be relied on in the case of RAC.
Recycled aggregate concrete Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Structural reliability

1. Introduction
The recycling of concrete coming from demolishing existing
structures or from the discards of the precast industry is gaining
day by day the attention of the construction industry as it can re-
duce the costs for supplying the coarse aggregates and of rubble
disposal. Accordingly, great benefits are obtained also in the safe-
guarding of limited natural resources. Many efforts have been
made in recent years to assess the structural use of Recycled Aggre-
gate Concrete (RAC). At the University of Perugia, a research pro-
gram has been active for some years to investigate the structural
use of RAC, mainly focused on its compression strength and on
structural reliability [1]. Indeed, the bond between concrete and
reinforcement also plays a non-negligible role in the technology
of RC structures. In this context, while it can be generally assessed
that the replacement of natural coarse aggregates with recycled
aggregates causes a lessening in the concrete compressive
strength, several contradictory indications can be found in the lit-
erature on the bond between RAC and deformed steel rebars. Some
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 075 5853900; fax: +39 075 585 3897.
E-mail addresses: brec@unipg.it (M. Breccolotti), materazzi@unipg.it (A.L.
Materazzi).
researchers find that due to the smaller difference between the
elastic moduli of the cement paste and the recycled aggregates
(if compared with those of the natural aggregates), a lower stress
concentration and thus, apparently, a higher bond strength are
achieved at the interface between the concrete and the steel. Other
researchers state that the quality of the concrete paste influences
the bond strength more than the kind of aggregate. In the present
paper, after a review of the relevant technical literature and the
presentation of further experimental tests, a theoretical investiga-
tion on the structural reliability of the bond between RAC and de-
formed bars is carried out to assess if it is necessary to adopt
increased safety coefficients to obtain the same probability of fail-
ure possessed by the bonding in normal aggregate concrete (NAC).
2. Literature survey
Recycled aggregate concrete has been studied since the late
1970s [2,3], but its use for structural application only recently
gained new attention for the increased appreciation by the com-
munity for sustainable development and safeguarding the natural
environment. The use of RAC is allowed in many European coun-
tries as well as in Japan and in the US. Other countries are pushing
to allow or to increase the structural use of RAC (see for instance

0950-0618/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2013.05.017
928 M. Breccolotti, A.L. Materazzi / Construction and Building Materials 47 (2013) 927–934

Nomenclature

/ diameter of the reinforcing bar ptr compression stress perpendicular to the potential split-
x abscissa of the reference system ting failure surface
s bond stress between concrete and steel fctk characteristic tensile strength of concrete
s(x) steel displacement at abscissa x sm maximum value of the bond strength in uncracked con-
Es steel elastic modulus crete
As steel area lanc anchorage length
c(x) concrete displacement at abscissa x fc concrete compressive strength (random variable)
Ec concrete elastic modulus fy steel yielding stress (random variable)
Ac area of the concrete fck characteristic value of concrete compressive strength
S(x) tensile force carried by the steel rebar at abscissa x fyk characteristic value of steel yielding stress
F external force applied to the bar cs partial safety factor for steel
d(x) slip between the concrete and the steel at abscissa x cc partial safety factor for concrete
fbd design bond strength according to MC2010 fR strength probability density function
fb;0 basic bond strength according to MC2010 fS load probability density function

Zhang and Ingham [4] and Xiao et al. [5]). While the compressive
strength of RAC has been widely investigated, the bond between
RAC and the reinforcing steel is not completely determined. Xiao
and Falkner [6] were among the first to investigate the problem.
According to their findings (see Fig. 1) the bond between RAC
and plain rebars decreases as the amount of recycled aggregates
(RA) increases, while it is almost unaffected in the case of de-
formed rebars. They also noted that the normalized bond strength,
defined as the ratio between the mean bond strength to the square
root of the mean compressive strength, is smaller for RAC with
smooth rebars while it is bigger than that of NAC in the case of de-
formed rebars.
In the experiments carried out by Choi and Kang [7], the bond
strength of the specimens made with RA were higher than those
of normal concrete for a w/c ratio equal to 0.5, whereas it was low-
er for a w/c ratio equal to 0.4. Moreover, they systematically ob-
served that the change in the bond strength, for w/c = 0.5, is
negligible for a replacement percentage of 50%, while it increased
for replacements of 30% and 100%. Baena et al. [8] observed that
the bond strength between RAC and reinforcing steel decreases
with higher amounts of recycled aggregates. For a concrete with
target compressive strength of 25 MPa, they observed a reduction
in the bond strength from su ¼ 14:4 MPa for concrete with only
natural aggregates, to su ¼ 13:1 MPa for a mix with only recycled
coarse aggregate. An even greater reduction has been observed
for higher strength concrete (target compressive strength
fc ¼ 50 MPaÞ. In this case, the bond strength was su ¼ 25:0 MPa
for the concrete with only natural aggregates and su ¼ 18:6 MPa
for the mix with only RA. Opposite indications have been found
by Huang and Wang [9]. They recorded an increase in the ultimate
bond strength as the percentage of replacement with recycled
coarse aggregates increases. Starting from an ultimate bond value
su ¼ 16:8 MPa for the conventional concrete mix with only natural
aggregates, they obtained a bond strength su ¼ 19:0 for the mix
with only recycled coarse aggregates, thus indicating that the rel-
ative bond strength of RAC increases with the replacement per-
centage. The comparison between these results is shown in Fig. 2.
A wide investigation has been carried out by Bai et al. [10]. Their
tests showed that the bond strength between deformed bars and
RAC decreased up to 25% when the replacement of natural aggre-
gates with RA increased from 0% to 100%. Finally, Butler et al.
[11] found that, on average, NAC specimens displayed bond
strengths that were from 9% to 19% higher than the equivalent
RAC specimens. It is thus evident from this literature survey that
no unique tendency is documented for the bond strength between
RAC and deformed rebars.
3. Theoretical background
The anchorage of plain and deformed steel rebars embedded in
a concrete block has been studied for many years, producing a
well-established body of knowledge. Well known is the approach
proposed by Ciampi et al. [12] and Eligehausen et al. [13]. This ap-
proach, based on the differential equations that represent the equi-
30

25

20
τ (MPa)

15
u

10
Baena et al. C25
5 Baena et al. C50
Huang
0
0 20 40 60 80 100
Recycled coarse aggregates (%)

Fig. 1. Mean bond strength for plain (left) and deformed rebar (right) according to Fig. 2. Comparison between experimental results obtained by Baena et al. [8] and
[6]. r indicates the RAC replacement percentage. Huang and Wang [9].
 M. Breccolotti, A.L. Materazzi / Construction and Building Materials 47 (2013) 927–934 929

librium and compatibility of deformation, may be completed by 4. Design provisions of the international standards
taking into account the deformation of concrete:
The occurrence of concrete cracking due to tensile stresses
ds SðxÞ
¼ ð1Þ caused by bending, axial loads, or shrinkage, significantly affects
dx Es  As
the bond strength between concrete and steel. This influence de-
pends on so many factors that Eq. (4) is inapplicable [15]. A conser-
dc F  SðxÞ
¼ ð2Þ vative and simplified approach is generally adopted in standards
dx Ec  Ac and codes for design purposes. For instance, the MC2010 assumes
the following average bond strength on the nominal surface of the
dS
¼ p  /  sðsðxÞ  cðxÞÞ ð3Þ bar along the anchorage length:
dx
The first equation describes the deformation of the steel rebar, fbd ¼ ða2 þ a3 Þ  fb;0 þ 2ptr < 2:0  fb;0 þ 0:4ptr ð5Þ
the second one the deformation of the surrounding concrete, and
the third one the interaction between the steel and the concrete with
through the bond stresses. rffiffiffiffiffiffi
In addition to the symbols listed in the Nomenclature, those g g g g fck
fb;0 ¼ 1 2 3 4  ð6Þ
shown in Fig. 3 have the following meanings: cc 20

 F  SðxÞ represents the load transferred to the concrete; A similar approach with uniform bond strength is followed also by
 dðxÞ ¼ sðxÞ  cðxÞ represents the slip between the concrete and the Eurocode 2 (EC2) [16]
the steel.
2:25  act  g5  g6  fctk
fbd ¼ ð7Þ
The bond-slip relation shown in Eq. (4) describes accurately the cc
real behaviour of the bonding:
 a with
dðxÞ
sðxÞ ¼ sm for 0 6 dðxÞ 6 d1 qffiffiffiffiffi
d1 3
fctk ¼ 0:21  fck2 ð8Þ
sðxÞ ¼ sm for d1 6 dðxÞ 6 d2
ð4Þ
  dðxÞ  d2
sðxÞ ¼ sm  sm  sf for d2 6 dðxÞ 6 d3
d3  d2
5. Experimental program
sðxÞ ¼ sf for d3 < dðxÞ
In this context, an experimental study was planned to investigate the bond
A reliable set of the parameters sm ; sf ; d1 ; d2 and d3 can be found strength between steel and RAC, including tests to assess the compressive strength,
in the fib Model Code 2010 (MC2010) [14]. evaluate the tensile strength, and study the bond properties of RAC. The samples
This general approach has to be modified to take into account came from two different series, each with three different mix designs, characterized
by different percentages of recycled aggregate, as detailed in the following.
the possibility of having two different failure types: pull-out and
splitting failure. The first one occurs when the confinement pro-
vided by the neighboring concrete or by the stirrups is sufficient 5.1. Concretes used as recycled aggregates
to prevent the splitting caused by transversal tension. In such a
case, the complete bond-slip relation of Eq. (4) can be used. In The recycled material used as coarse aggregate came from a materials testing
laboratory where concrete standard specimens have been crushed in compression
the second case the lack of sufficient confinement and the presence tests. It has been thus possible to select concrete samples with well known com-
of transversal tension produce a sudden splitting of the concrete, pressive strength. Only cubes with a compressive strength within the ranges of
preventing the attainment of the maximum bond strength. 30–32.5 MPa were selected as representative of the concrete rubble coming from
conventional structures.
Two series of experimental tests were carried out. The first series was composed
of 66 specimens, while the second ones had 63 specimens. In the first and second
series, an average cylindrical compressive strength of 26.2 and 26.1 MPa was found
for the original compressive strength (see Table 1). The coefficients of variation
(CoV) were 2.7% and 2.3%, respectively.

5.2. RAC mixes

Three different percentages of recycled coarse aggregates (0%, 50%, 100%) were
used to study the bond between the steel and concrete. These mixes are referred
to as follows:

 C0-0-1 and C0-0-2 (reference mixes with only natural aggregates);

 C25-50-1;
 C25-100-1;
 C25-50-2;
 C25-100-2.

Table 1
Compressive strength of the recycled concrete.

Series no. Cubes no. fc,mean (MPa) r (MPa) CoV (%)

First 66 26.2 0.72 2.7
Second 63 26.1 0.59 2.3
Fig. 3. Equilibrium and compatibility of bonding in RC.
930 M. Breccolotti, A.L. Materazzi / Construction and Building Materials 47 (2013) 927–934

Table 2
Mixes of the first series of recycled aggregates concrete.

Concrete type Cement (kg/m3) w/c ratio Sand 0/4 (kg/m3) NA 8/16 (kg/m3) NA 16/24 (kg/m3) RA 0/30 (kg/m3) Super plasticizer (liters/m3)
C0-0-1 400 0.50 664 584 417 0 4.3
C25-50-1 400 0.50 498 250 334 515 4.3
C25-100-1 400 0.50 415 0 0 1101 4.3

Table 3
Mixes of the second series of recycled aggregates concrete.

Concrete type Cement (kg/m3) w/c ratio Sand 0/4 (kg/m3) NA 4/8 (kg/m3) NA 8/12 (kg/m3) RA 0/30 (kg/m3) Super plasticizer (liters/m3)
C0-0-2 400 0.45 824 380 410 0 3.2
C25-50-2 400 0.45 804 302 88 351 3.0
C25-100-2 400 0.45 896 0 0 611 3.4

The acronym CX–Y–Z indicates that the mixture belongs to the Zth series and con-
tain Y% of RA made by crushed concrete of class CX. Only the coarse aggregates
(gravel 8/16 and gravel 16/24) were replaced by recycled coarse aggregate. Due
to the differences in the granulometry of recycled coarse aggregates and natural
aggregates, slightly different relative quantities of sand and gravel were used to bet-
ter approximate a Bolomey distribution. The mix designs are reported in Tables 2,3
for the first and second series, respectively.
6. Experimental results
The pull-out test arrangement used to evaluate the bond strength between the con-
crete and steel bar is shown in Fig. 4. Two LVDTs were used to measure the relative
displacement between the concrete surface and the free end of the rebar. An elastic
pad was used to avoid stress concentration on the contact surface between the con-
crete block and the steel mock-up and to reduce the confinement stresses on the
concrete due to restricted transversal deformations. Finally, the pull-out force
was applied by a standard machine for testing steel rebars. Both the pull-out and
splitting failures were recorded during the tests. The bond-slip relation for concrete
mixes C25-50% and C25-100% are reported in Fig. 5. Comprehensive test results are
summed up in Table 6.

6.1. Compressive strength

The results of the compression tests (Table 4) show, as expected, that the max- 7. Comments on the experimental results
imum value of the compressive strength is found in each series for the mixes made
with only natural aggregates while the compressive strength decreases with
7.1. Bond-slip relation
increasing amount of RA. A further observation can be made regarding the CoV ob-
tained in the two experiments. Although the recycled concretes were carefully se-
lected, the compressive strength of RAC is equally or more dispersed than that of The local bond-slip relation was evaluated according to the for-
NAC. This finding confirms that the compression strength of concrete with recycled mula proposed by the fib Model Code (Eq. (4)) with the following
aggregates usually possesses a higher CoV than concrete with only natural
aggregates.

6.2. Tensile strength

The evaluation of the tensile splitting strength of concrete was carried out
according to the EN 12390-6 [17] standard. The results follow the general trend
found for the compressive strength (see Table 5) with a decrease as the percentage
of replacement increases. It can further be observed that the tensile strengths in the
first series were smaller and more dispersed.

6.3. Bond strength

The pull-out tests were conducted in accordance with the recommendation

provided by RILEM [18]. Concrete prisms with a square cross section of
200  200 mm, height of 150 mm, and 14 mm diameter reinforcing steel were used.

Table 4
Compressive strengths of RACs.

Mix design fctm (MPa) r (MPa) CoV (MPa)

C0-0-1 55.8 2.45 0.044
C25-50-1 47.2 1.42 0.030
C25-100-1 36.5 1.49 0.041
C0-0-2 53.1 2.01 0.038
C25-50-2 50.6 2.33 0.046
C25-100-2 45.1 1.92 0.043

Table 5
Tensile strengths of RACs.

Mix design fctm (MPa) r (MPa) CoV (MPa)

C0-0-1 3.56 0.57 0.161
C25-50-1 2.81 0.41 0.145
C25-100-1 2.50 0.22 0.088
C0-0-2 4.79 0.30 0.062
C25-50-2 3.18 0.22 0.070
C25-100-2 4.06 0.26 0.065
Fig. 4. Experimental setup for pull-out tests.
 M. Breccolotti, A.L. Materazzi / Construction and Building Materials 47 (2013) 927–934 931

40 70
C25−50−1
C25−100−1 60
35
C25−50−2
50
C25−100−2
30
MC2010 uncrack

fcm (MPa)
40
MC2010 design
25
30
τ (N/mm )
2

20 20

1st series
15 10
2nd series
0
10 0 20 40 60 80 100
Recycled coarse aggregates (%)
5
(a)
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 35
Displacement (mm)
30
Fig. 5. Examples of bond-slip relation for mixes with RA.
25
Table 6
Bond strengths of RACs. 20

τ (MPa)
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
Mix sm r CoV sm = fcm ðMPa0:5 Þ fbd ðMPaÞ
15
design (MPa) (MPa) (MPa)
C0-0-1 25.2 1.44 0.057 3.37 4.41 10
C25-50-1 20.1 2.40 0.119 2.93 4.06
C25-100-1 22.7 2.50 0.110 3.76 3.57 1st series
5
C0-0-2 25.5 0.20 0.008 3.50 4.30 2nd series
C25-50-2 25.9 3.50 0.135 3.64 4.20
0
C25-100-2 24.0 0.54 0.023 3.57 3.96
0 20 40 60 80 100
Recycled coarse aggregates (%)

parameters: good bond conditions, fck = 50 MPa, d1 = 1.0 mm, (b)

d2 = 2.0 mm, d3=cclear = 6.0 mm, a = 0.4, sf = 0.4 sm and
pffiffiffiffiffi 7
sm ¼ 2:5  fck ð9Þ 1st series
6
A good agreement between the experimental results and the theo- 2nd series
retical values was achieved, as shown in Fig. 5, even if it is evident 5 reference
from this experimental study that the provisions of the MC2010
turned out to be somehow conservative in that the normalized 4
0.5
τ/fcm

bond strength, i.e., the ratio between the maximum bond stress
3
sm and the square root of the compressive strength fcm , was always
greater than the value of 2.5 provided by the code (see Fig. 6). More-
2
over it turned out that the normalized bond strength is only slightly
affected by the replacement of normal aggregate with recycled 1
aggregates (see Table 6), thus confirming the conclusion drawn by
Xiao and Falkner [6]. 0
0 20 40 60 80 100

7.2. Design values of the bond strength Recycled coarse aggregates (%)
(c)
The experimental results were also compared (see Fig. 5) with
the design values calculated according to Eq. (5) provided by the Fig. 6. Results of the experimental tests: (a) mean compressive strength, (b) mean
MC2010 where the following additional parameters were bond strength, (c) normalized mean bond strength.
assumed:
The design values obtained for each of the concrete mixes,
a2 = 2.0; summed up in Table 6, are suitably smaller that those obtained
a3 = 0 for no transverse reinforcement; experimentally, to take into account the presence of cracking.
ptr = 0;
g1 = 1.8 for ribbed bars;
g2 = 1.0 for bars with an inclination of 90° to the horizontal dur- 8. Structural reliability of bonding
ing concreting;
g3 = 1.0 for bars with diameter / 6 20 mm; The overall structural reliability of the bonding between con-
g4 = 1.1 for steel with fyk ¼ 450 MPa. crete and steel rebars could be evaluated following a general ap-
932 M. Breccolotti, A.L. Materazzi / Construction and Building Materials 47 (2013) 927–934

Table 7 suggested by the MC2010 and EC2. This figure was increased
Statistical properties of random variables f c and f y . through the range 20–30% to take into account the higher dispersion
Case n. Random Distribution Mean value (MPa) CoV (%) of fc for RAC whereas CoVs representative of the precast concrete
variable type industries, equal to 5% and 10%, were also investigated.
1 f c;precast Lognormal 21.8 5
2 27.2 8.1. Bonding in cracked concrete
3 32.7
4 38.1
5 43.6
For the case of cracked concrete, a constant value of the bond
6 49.0 strength is assumed over the entire anchorage length. Thus, the
7 23.9 10
limit state equation (Eq. (10)) assumes the following closed form
8 29.9 expression:
9 35.9
10 41.9
p/f bd lanc  As  f y ¼ 0 ð13Þ
11 47.8
and the anchorage length lanc is equal to
12 53.8
13 f c;NAC Lognormal 26.5 15 fyk  /
lanc ¼ ð14Þ
14 33.2 4  cs  fbd
15 39.8
16 46.4 In this case, the reliability index b was calculated with the First Or-
17 53.1 der Reliability Method (FORM) modified according to Rackwitz and
18 59.7
Fiessler [20] to take into consideration non-normal distributions of
19 f c;RAC Lognormal 29.8 20 the random variables involved in the problem. The solutions were
20 37.2
obtained using well known optimization algorithms [21].
21 44.6
22 52.1
23 59.5 8.2. Bonding in uncracked concrete
24 67.0
25 33.9 25 For the case of uncracked concrete, the bond stress is described
26 42.4 by Eq. (4) and thus no closed form solution can be obtained for the
27 50.8 limit state function. In this case the anchorage length was calcu-
28 59.3
29 67.8
lated by solving the following integral equation:
30 76.3 Z !
lanc
p/sðxÞ fyk
31 39.4 30 max dx ¼ As  ð15Þ
32 49.2 0 cc cs
33 59.1
34 68.9 simulating a displacement controlled pull-out test [22].
35 78.7 Monte Carlo simulations were then used to determine the prob-
36 88.6 ability density functions of the bond strength fR and the steel yield-
fy Lognormal 450 5 ing stress fS and to calculate the probability of failure pf :
Z þ1 Z s 
pf ¼ fR ðrÞdr  fS ðsÞds ð16Þ
proach such as that proposed by Darwing et al. [19]. Although the 0 0

objective of this work was that of evaluating whether the adoption

of a greater partial coefficient factor would be necessary to take
into account the higher variability of concrete strength in RAC, a
simplified approach can be more conveniently used. Thus, assum-
ing that the failure of the anchorage corresponds to the debonding
of the rebar prior of its yielding, the limit state equation R  S ¼ 0
can be written in the following general form:
Z lanc
p/sðf c ; xÞdx  As  f y ¼ 0
0
with
Z lanc
R¼ p/sðf c ; xÞdx
0 tance fck and steel characteristic yielding stress fyk ) are
S ¼ As  f y
where the random variables have been indicated with bold face.
The reliability of the bond between the concrete and the steel re-
bar was evaluated for uncracked concrete according to Eq. (4) and for
cracked concrete using Eq. (5), following, in both cases, the provi-
sions of the MC2010. A parametric investigation was carried out
assuming several values of the characteristic compressive strength
of the concrete fck and several values of its CoV. The statistical prop-
erties (mean and CoV) of the random variables f c and f y assumed in
the analysis are summed up in Table 7. In particular, a CoV reference
value of 15% was assumed for the compressive strength of NAC as
8.3. Calibration of the concrete coefficient of safety cc
A calibrated concrete coefficient of safety cc was calculated to
obtain an anchorage length in RAC that would have the same fail-
ure probability of anchorage as NAC with the same characteristic
resistance fck . A methodology based on a reliability analysis at Level
2 for the tuning of this factor for the concrete compressive strength
ð10Þ was used for this purpose. This methodology, valid in both the
cases of cracked and uncracked concrete, is made up of the follow-
ing steps, also represented in the flow chart of Fig. 7:
ð11Þ 1. the properties of the materials (concrete characteristic resis-
assumed together with the diameter of the reinforcing bar
ð12Þ /;
2. the design anchorage length lanc to prevent a premature deb-
onding is calculated using Eq. (14) for cracked concrete and
solving Eq. (15) for uncracked concrete;
3. the statistical properties of NAC and steel listed in Table 7
are assumed;
4. the value of the reliability index bnc is determined for the
analyzed case modeling the resistance of the normal con-
crete and that of the steel as random variables. The index
bnc turned out to be approximately equal to 3.5 as foreseen
by the MC2010 criterion on structural reliability;
 M. Breccolotti, A.L. Materazzi / Construction and Building Materials 47 (2013) 927–934 933

1.65 5
γ
c
β
1.6 4.5

1.55 4

β
γ *
c
1.5 3.5

1.45 3

1.4 2.5
5 10 15 20 25 30
f CoV (%)
c
(a)
1.65 5
γc
β
1.6 4.5

1.55 4

β
γ *
c

1.5 3.5

1.45 3

1.4 2.5
5 10 15 20 25 30
fc CoV (%)

(b)
Fig. 8. Tuned partial coefficients cc for bond in cracked RAC: (a) MC2010, (b) EC2.

11. if the control is negative, the procedure is repeated from

Fig. 7. Flow chart for the calibration of the concrete safety coefficient for RAC. point (5) on.

A parametric investigation that made use of this procedure was

5. the value of bnc is assumed as the target value for the subse-
quent operations: bt ¼ bnc ;
6. the value of the safety factor of the concrete is arbitrarily
increased: cc ¼ cc þ Dcc ;
7. using level 1 algorithms, the anchorage length of the steel
rebars lanc is updated with the objective of maintaining
unchanged the bond carrying capacity ðAs fyk =cs Þ;
8. a recycled concrete with a known percentage of recycled
aggregate and with the same characteristic resistance of
the normal one but different CoV is now considered;
9. with reference to this case and keeping in mind the statisti-
cal properties of the RAC the value of the safety index brc is
determined;
10. check if the safety index of the section made with recycled
concrete is equal to the target value bt . If the control is posi-
tive the procedure ends and cc is the value of the safety par-
tial coefficient: cc ¼ cc ;
applied to the bonding in cracked and uncracked concrete with
increasing CoV to simulate the higher variability of the concrete
compressive strength in RAC. Starting from a reference value of
15% for NAC, the CoV was increased up to 30% to simulate the high-
er scattering in the compressive strength for RAC. CoVs equal to 5%
and 10% were also investigated to account for lower scattering in
the precast industries due to the stringent quality controls during
the production. Concrete classes with fck ranging from 20 to
45 MPa were considered. Due to the format of the limit state equa-
tion, the influence of the concrete compressive strength is can-
celled out. The results are shown in Fig. 8 for the case of cracked
concrete. In the same figure are also shown for comparison the
tuned partial coefficients cc obtained using the design bond
strength provided by the EC2 (Eq. (7)). It can be noted that the
safety coefficients turned out to be slightly higher for the case of
qffiffiffiffiffi
EC2, the bonding strength being proportional to 3
f 2
ck whereas the
pffiffiffiffiffi
bonding strength is proportional to fck according to the
934 M. Breccolotti, A.L. Materazzi / Construction and Building Materials 47 (2013) 927–934
x 10
−5
6 recycled aggregates as a replacement for natural coarse aggregates
Bond strength
Rebar strength
5 ded in the concrete.
4 firmed that the normalized bond strength of RAC is only slightly
PDF
3 opinion that the design formulas provided by standards such
2 Finally, according to the results of the structural reliability anal-
1
0
1 1.5 2 2.5
Force (kN) x 10
Fig. 9. PDFs of bond strength (right) and rebar yielding force (left).
MC2010. The reliability indexes b obtained with cc ¼ 1:5 are also
plotted in the same figure. In Fig. 9 is shown an example of the
PDFs of the bond strength fR and steel yielding force fS produced
by means of a Monte Carlo simulation composed of 105 samples
of the random variables f c and f y . The probability of failure for
the simulation shown in the figure turned out to be
pf ¼ 1:787  104 corresponding to a reliability index b ¼ 3:57.
The coefficients cc obtained for the bonding in uncracked concrete
are in the range 1.46–1.57, essentially equal to those obtained for
the case of cracked concrete. This is due to the occurrence of an al-
most uniform bonding stress along the bonding length for an im-
posed pull-out displacement of the steel rebars beetween
d1 and d2 .
As a general comment on the results of the experimental tests
and on the findings coming from the theoretical investigations, it
can be asserted that:
 the bond strength of RAC tends to decrease when the natural
aggregates are replaced with recycled aggregates. This, then,
follows the trend of the compressive strength. This aspect is
more evident when all the natural coarse aggregates are
replaced; pffiffiffiffiffi
 the normalized bond strength ðs= fck Þ of RAC does not differ
sensibly from that of NAC and, consequently, the formulas given
by the MC2010 can be used to evaluate the bond strength of
RAC, too;
 the structural reliability of bonding in RAC does not need an
increased coefficient of safety since it can be argued that the
small increase in the coefficient cc resulting from the analysis
is counterbalanced by the generally conservative design values
of the bond strength foreseen by design standards such as
MC2010 and EC2.
9. Conclusions
In the present paper an experimental and theoretical investiga-
tion of the bond between steel and recycled aggregate concrete
was presented. The paper aims at evaluating whether the use of
requires a specific design formula in the evaluation of the bond
length for the anchorages and lap splices of the steel rebars embed-
The results of the experimental tests carried out by the
authors, as already observed by others in the literature, con-
affected by the replacement of normal aggregate. Based on these
results and on those found in the literature, it is the author’s
as MC2010 and EC2 for the anchorage length in NAC can gener-
ally be adopted also for RAC.
ysis, it can be judged that the actual limit state design method and
the relative coefficient of safety for the concrete compression
strength cc provide an acceptable probability of failure for the
anchorage and lap splice between steel rebars and RAC.
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