Rebar remake promises savings
A new rib pattern for steel reinforcing rods could save contractors up to 10% in labor and steel costs, claim members of a design team at the University of Kansas. The secret is in the configuration. Working under a $300,000 grant from the Civil Engineering Research Foundation in Washington, D.C., the team, increased the size of the ribs and their number on the rebar. The design features more effective transverse steel on the ribs than on typical rebar. {open_quotes}The lab testing has been done and we have derived the performance characteristics,{close_quotes} says Harvey Bernstein, president of CERF. {open_quotes}All that remains is for it to be put into an active project.{close_quotes} CERF is seeking approval form the General Services Administration and the Federal Highway Administration for a test in 1995 on a federal project. The team is led by David Darwin, a civil engineering professor and director of the university`s structural engineering and materials laboratory in Lawrence. For years, Darwin has sought a way to improve rebar. {open_quotes}In terms of rib geometry, it has remained unchanged since the 1940s,{close_quotes} he says. Laboratory tests show that the new bars have greater holding strength than conventional rebar. {open_quotes}Our tests how that if we use higher or closer ribs, or a combination of the two, we can reap benefits,{close_quotes} he says. But there`s a fine line, he adds. Ribs that are raised too much or that are too close together don`t work because concrete cannot penetrate the fine grooves. Nor could such bars be rolled easily at steel manufacturing plants.
- OSTI ID:
- 160003
- Journal Information:
- ENR, Vol. 233, Issue 23; Other Information: PBD: 5 Dec 1994
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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