Direct tension tests reveal how restrained shrinkage affects tensile stress in reinforced UHPC structures, suggesting implications for design.
Ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC), with excellent mechanical properties and exceptional durability, is becoming popular in application in newly built infrastructures and rehabilitation of old structures. UHPC is usually used with steel reinforcement in engineering practice. However, the free shrinkage of UHPC, especially the autogenous shrinkage at an early age, is inevitably constrained by the presence of rebar, leading to tensile stress in UHPC and compressive stress in steel rebar. This study aims to clarify this restrained shrinkage effect by conducting direct tension tests on rebar- reinforced UHPC (R-UHPC) specimens. The influence of the reinforcement ratio on this effect was investigated. Test results show that the restrained effect induces the premature cracking of CA- UHPC before reaching its first cracking strength, and delayed yielding of steel rebar. The concept of restrained degree was proposed to quantify this restrained effect.
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Shi et al. (2025) studied this question.
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