Setting Bar-Bending Requirements

for High-Strength Steel Bars

Stephen Zhao
Dr. Wassim Ghannoum

Sponsored by:
The Charles Pankow Foundation
The Concrete Reinforcing Steel Institute
The American Concrete Institutes Foundation, Concrete Research Council
Want some concrete with your steel?
 Motivation
Increasing need for higher Grade reinforcing steel
US developing reinforcing bars with yield strengths up to 120 ksi
High-strength bars are being produced using a variety of
methods
Concern that less ductile higher Grade steels may fracture at
bends with current bend diameters
 Objective
Conduct bend/re-bend tests in order to quantify
residual capacities under load in bends
Experimental Program Overview
Three Phases:
Monotonic Tests
Strain Aging Tests
Bend Re-bend Tests
Testing Parameters:
Steel Grade and Specification
Bend Diameter
Bar Size
Bend Angle
Strain Aging
Loading rate
Temperature
 Bend Tests
Three main categories of experimental bend tests
for investigating behavior of bends in reinforcing
bars:
Visual inspections of bends (ASTM Bend Tests)
Bend Re-bend tests
Bend tests in concrete

For this research we have chosen to go with bend

re-bend tests.
 Testing Protocol
Bend Re-bend Testing Protocols
Bend diameters were first tested for those
specified in ACI 318-14 and then readjusted for
further testing
Specimens were bent by a local fabricator
Bends were made with longitudinal ribs on the
side of the bends
Specimens were left to strain age prior to testing
until fracture
Bend Tests
 Bending Tolerance Templates

These templates were used in order to control tolerance for bent specimens
 Typical Bend Re-bend Data
fub/f = Axial stress in bar at fracture / Monotonic Yield Stress
b = Axial strain in bar at fracture
1.6
1.4
1.2
1
fub/f

0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1
b
Effect of Grade on Re-bend Performance
 Effect of Bar Size on
Re-bend Performance
Effect of Bend Diameter on
Re-bend Performance
Theoretical Strain in Bend Specimens

=


= 2 +
360
1
= 2 +
2 360

+ +1
= =
1 1
+ +
2 2
Theoretical Strain at Bends
 Normalized Fracture Stress
vs Normalized Theoretical Bend Strain
 Bend Re-bend Result Summary
#8 and # 11 bends performed adequately at room temperature
exceeded yield stress at fracture.
# 5 bends at 4db barely made it to yield stress in Grade 60 bars, did
not in higher grades.
Increasing bend diameters for #5 bars improved performance.

As Grade increases there is a decrease in bend performance.

As Bar Size increases there is an increase in bend performance,
which seems related to bend inside diameter.
As Bend Diameter increases there is an increase in bend
performance.
 Conclusion
The tighter ACI 318 bend radii may need to be revised for
higher grade steels.
Further research needed to investigate performance of
bends in cold temperatures.
Questions?