The primary aim of this study was to investigate the bond strength between reinforcement and concrete. Large sized nine beams, which were produced from concrete with approximately f c ' = 30 MPa, were tested. Each beam was designed to include two bars in tension, spliced at the center of the span. The splice length was selected so that bars would fail in bond, splitting the concrete cover in the splice region, before reaching the yield point. In all experiments, the variable used was the reinforcing bar diameter. In the experiments, beam specimens were loaded in positive bending with the splice in a constant moment region. In consequence, as the bar diameter increased, bond strength and ductility reduced but, however, the stiffnesses of the beams (resistance to deflection) increased. Morever, a empirical equation was obtained to calculate the bond strength of reinforcement and this equation was compared with Orangun et al. (1977) and Esfahani and Rangan (1998). There was a good agreement between the values computed from the predictive equation and those computed from equations of Orangun et al. (1977) and Esfahani and Rangan (1998).

The paper reports on a study of bond strength between reduced-water-content concrete and tensile reinforcement in spliced mode. Three different diameters (12, 16 and 22 mm) of tensile steel were spliced in the constant moment zone, where there were two bars of same size in tension. For each diameter of reinforcement, a total of nine beams (1900 × 270 × 180 mm) were tested, of which three beams were with no axial force (positive bending) and the other six beams were with axial force (combined bending). The splice length was selected so that bars would fail in bond, splitting the concrete cover in the splice region, before reaching the yield point. It was found that there was a considerable size effect in the experimental results, i.e., as the diameter of the reinforcement reduced the bond strength and the deflection recorded at the midspan increased significantly, whilst the stiffness of the beams reduced. It was also found for all reinforcement sizes that higher bond strength and stiffness were obtained for beams tested in combined bending than that of the beams tested in positive bending only.

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