The present study concerns the bond behavior of steel bar in concrete under a water environment. This topic was put forward because of the changes of concrete under a water environment and the importance of reliable anchorage of steel bar for reinforced concrete structures. Thirty bond specimens with deformed steel bars were immersed in water and experimentally studied by pull-out tests. The soaking time from 28 day to 360 day and the cubic compressive strength of concrete with 20 N/mm2 and 40 N/mm2 were considered as the main parameters. The results indicate that the moisture content, compressive strength, and splitting tensile strength of concrete are affected by the water environment; the splitting tensile strength varies almost linearly with the compressive strength of concrete; and the descent portion of the bond-slip curve dropped slowly owing to the confinement of stirrups. On the basis of the test data, the formulas for the prediction of bond strength, residual strength, and the corresponding slips with different soaking time are proposed. Finally, the constitutive relation of bond-slip with two portions in the water environment is established with good agreement with the experimental bond-slip curves.
Keywords: bond property; bond–slip curve; concrete; constitutive model; deformed steel bar; water environment.