Thick-walled concrete rings were subjected to an inner pressure to simulate the wedge forces provoked by the ribs of reinforcing bars in concrete. In order to realistically represent the actual wedge action resulting from the pull-out of a ribbed bar,…
Thick-walled concrete rings were subjected to an inner pressure to simulate the wedge forces provoked by the ribs of reinforcing bars in concrete. In order to realistically represent the actual wedge action resulting from the pull-out of a ribbed bar, a special mechanical loading device has been used to apply an outward displacement to the inner surface of the ring. The influence of the external confinement on the damage localization and on the splitting crack development was studied in the experiments. Numerical analyses were performed by utilizing a discrete as well as a smeared crack approach.