Bond performance of reinforcing bars in inorganic polymer concrete (IPC)

The basic mechanical and chemical properties of fly-ash-based inorganic polymer concretes (IPC) have been studied widely, but, key engineering and structural properties of the material for instance modulus of elasticity, compressive, tensile, flexural strengths and bonding strength of the material to reinforcement have received little attention. Structural applications of reinforced IPC depend on the bond performance of the material to the reinforcement. Due to their difference with ordinary Portland cement (OPC) based concrete in terms of chemical reaction and matrix formation it is not known whether IPC exhibit different bonding performance with the reinforcement. Simply relying on compressive strength of the material and extrapolating models and equations meant for OPC based concrete may lead to unsafe design of structural members. To that end, 27 beam-end specimens, 58 cubic direct pullout type specimens and number of laboratory test specimens were tested to evaluate bonding performance of IPC with reinforcement. The results of beam-end specimens and direct pullout type specimens correlate favourably, although the results of direct pullout tests are in general more conservative than those of beam-end specimens. Overall, it can be concluded that bond performance of IPC mixes are comparable to OPC based concrete and therefore IPC and steel can be used as a composite material to resist tension in addition to compression.