Associate Professor Christian Carloni’s talk, “Pull-out Tests of FRP Bars Embedded in Concrete: A New Insight,” received a best presentation award at the second annual workshop organized by the Transportation Infrastructure Durability and Life Extension Center—a National University Transportation Center funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) bars are an alternative solution to steel bars as internal reinforcement in concrete structures due to their ability to address the corrosion problem that plagues steel bars in certain applications such as bridge decks.

ASTM D7913 provides the requirements to test the bond behavior of FRP bars embedded in concrete using a pullout test set-up. Carloni and his group’s research has highlighted that the protrusion of the bar at the free end of the specimen might alter the response of the test and therefore compromise the identification of the bond parameters. In addition, a comparison of pull-out test and notched beam test results have shown a feasible way to determine the relationship between crack opening and stress in the FRP bar in reinforced concrete structures. These results have promoted a new discussion on the significance of pull-out tests within the FRP and ASTM communities.