Bond Strength of Reinforcement in High-Strength Concrete

The use of high-strength concrete is becoming popular around the world. The american code, ACI 318–95 is used in many countries to calculate the development length of deformed bars in tension. However, current design provisions of ACI 318–95 are based on empirical relationships developed from tests on normal strength concrete. The results of a series of tests on high-strength concrete, reported in the literature, from six research studies are used to review the existing recommendations in ACI 318–95 for design of splices and anchorage of reinforcement. It is shown that ACI 318–95 equations may be unconservative for some cases beyond 62 MPa (9 ksi).