Postyield Bond Deterioration and Damage Assessment of RC Beams Using Distributed Fiber-Optic Strain Sensing System

Postyield steel-concrete bond has been the subject of considerable investigations using pull-out or direct tensile tests; however, the degradation in bond due to reinforcement yielding in RC beams subjected to lateral loading has not been fully scrutinized. Conventional measuring instruments (strain gauges or LVDTs) cannot precisely measure strain distribution along the yielded reinforcing bar with a minimum level of interference to the bond. Therefore, this study reports the postyield behavior of bond in RC cantilever beams subjected to monotonic lateral loading monitored using a distributed fiber-optic strain sensing system (DFOSSS). The DFOSSS enabled accurate monitoring of deformations of the embedded reinforcing bars and the strains on the concrete surface. This allowed slip, steel stress, bond stress, bond deterioration length, and the locations of cracks to be determined. Using the new values for maximum bond stress, a model was proposed to predict pre- and postyield bond behavior, including steel strain effect. Finally, the mean bond stress values were presented for the simple assessment of bond strength in both pre- and postyield regions.