Experimental and numerical study of headed bars embedded in RC members under tension

Headed bars are often used when there is insufficient space for a straight or curved bar to be fully developed to ensure the transference of forces between steel and concrete in several types of connections between structural members. In such cases, the concrete breakout strength of the headed bars can be a critical point of the design and must be considered appropriately. This paper evaluates the tensile strength of headed bars embedded in reinforced concrete members, failing due to concrete breakout. Four experimental tests on headed bars embedded in slender concrete members are presented and discussed, showing that strength previsions from the design codes can be significantly conservative as they ignore the contribution from the flexural reinforcement. 3D finite element models were developed using Abaqus Unified FEA to simulate the tested specimens, and it was observed that they were able to reproduce the formation of the concrete cone accurately, besides the response and resistance observed in tests. Furthermore, the experimental, numerical, and design code resistances are compared and discussed. A new equation to evaluate the concrete cone strength of the tested headed bars is proposed, which takes into account parameters not explicitly considered in the current design equations.