Experimental and numerical studies of mono-strand anchorage

This paper deals with an experimental and numerical study of a mono-strand wedge anchorhead mechanism. First, the experimental program is presented and monitored data such as wedge slippage,anchor deflection and strain distributions along external peripheral surfaces of the anchor head arepresented and discussed. In accordance with the experimental set up, these data concern only the globalbehaviour of the mechanism and cannot provide valuable information such as internal stress-strainsdistributions, stress concentrations and percentage of yielded volume. Therefore, the second part of thispaper deals with the development of an efficient numerical finite element model capable of providingmechanism of the core information. The numerical model which includes all kinematics/material/contactnon-linearities is first calibrated using experimental data. Subsequently, a numerical study of the anchoragemechanism is performed and its behaviour is compared to the behaviour of a slightly geometricallymodified mechanism where the external diameter has been increased by 5 mm. Finally, different topicsinfluencing the anchorage mechanism behaviour are addressed such as lubrication and wedge shape.