Behavior and design of post-installed rebar connections under temperature

Typical applications for post-installed rebar connections consist in overlapping joints with existing reinforcement or anchoring of the reinforcement at a slab or beam support. At cold state it may be shown by testing that a post-installed rebar system can develop the same bond resistance with the same safety margin as cast-in-place rebar. Consequently, anchorage length and lap length for post-installed rebars can be calculated as for cast-in-place according to the Eurocode 2 provisions. However, when subjected to temperature, the decay in bond properties for post-installed systems is significantly more dramatic than for cast-in-place rebars. The paper presents the result of an experimental campaign carried out on a post-installed connection using a vinylester polymer, investigating the effects on the bond strength both of the temperature and of different testing conditions. Finally, design criteria are provided and applied to a typical case study consisting in a post-installed solid slab.