Refined non-linear static or dynamic analyses are increasingly used to assess the behavior of new and existing reinforced concrete structures. To perform these analyses, an adequate knowledge of the force-displacement, bending moment-curvature, and bending moment-rotation curves of relevant parts of structural members is needed, and modeling the bond-slip correlation for steel rebars becomes fundamental. The paper presents the results of an experimental campaign on r.c. specimens under tension, aiming, differently from previous studies, to better reproduce the bond-slip relationship accounting for the local confinement and anchorage conditions of real structural members. Resorting to an original numerical procedure allowing us to predict the relative displacement between steel reinforcement and the surrounding concrete in a reinforced concrete element, once assigned the stress in the naked steel bar and the bond-slip law, the experimental results are compared with the numerical outcomes obtained by adopting codified bond-slip laws. The comparison highlights that experimental values of sliding are well below those that are commonly given in existing bond slip laws, such as that adopted by the CEB-FIP Model Code. A new bond-slip model, which is able to satisfactorily predict actual strain fields and slips along the investigated r.c. elements, is thus proposed with the final aim of extending its implementation into non-linear analyses of r.c. structures.
Keywords: bond stress; bond–slip; crack opening; crack pattern; non-linear behavior; numerical analysis; reinforced concrete.