Active SMA Fibers’ Effect on the Pullout Behavior of a Steel Bar Embedded in Concrete

This study investigated the bond behavior and radial crack between concrete and reinforcing bars using cold-drawn shape memory alloy (SMA) crimped fibers controlled by the temperature and volume fraction of the fibers. In this novel approach, the concrete specimens containing cold-drawn SMA crimped fibers with 1.0% and 1.5% volume fractions of cold-drawn SMA fibers were prepared. After that, the specimens were heated to 150 °C to generate recovery stress and activate prestressing within the concrete. The bond strength of specimens was estimated by pullout test using the universal testing machine (UTM). Furthermore, the cracking patterns were investigated using radial strain measured by a circumferential extensometer. The results showed that adding up to 1.5% of SMA fibers improved the bond strength by 47.9% and reduced radial strain by more than 54%. Thus, heating specimens containing SMA fibers showed improved bond behavior compared with non-heated specimens with the same volume fraction.