Experimental Assessment of Bond Characteristics in Reinforced Concrete with Electric Arc Furnace Slag

The anchorage between deformed steel bars embedded in concrete blocks has been studied for many years in literature, thus leading to a well-established knowledge on this topic. However, literature is more limited when novel kind of concretes are used, e.g. recycled concretes or electric arc furnace (EAF) slag concretes. This study deals particularly on EAF concrete, and bond between steel reinforcement was studied experimentally through pull-out tests, according to RILEM recommendations. Six series of samples were used, characterized by different aggregate type and water/cement ratio. Bond-slip relationships were analyzed, and the main bond stress characteristics were obtained. Additionally, experimental results were compared with analytical predictions, obtained with empirical formulations collected from literature. Results indicate that bond strength is enhanced when EAF slag is used as recycled coarse aggregates in relatively high-strength concrete.