Effect of the Existing Rust on Bond Strength of Concrete and Reinforcement

An experimental investigation on the relationship between corrosion of reinforcement and bond strength in pull-out test specimen has been conducted to establish the allowable limit of rust of reinforcement in the construction field. The reinforcing bars used in this study were rusted before embedded in pull-out test specimen. The first component of this experiment is to make reinforcing bar rust electrically based on Faraday's theory to be 2, 4, 6, 8 and $10\%$ of reinforcing bar weight. For estimation of the amount of rust by weight, Clarke's solution and shot blasting were adopted and compared. Parameters also include 24 and 45MPa of concrete compressive strengths and diameter of reinforcing bar (16, 19 and 25mm). Pull-out tests were carried out according to KS F 2441 and ASTM C 234. Results show that up to $2\%$ of rust increases the bond strength regardless of concrete strength and diameter of reinforcing bar. As expected, the bond strength increases as compressive strength of concrete increases and the diameter of bar decreases.