Evaluation Of Grout Materials For Anchor Embedments In Hardened Concrete

Rehabilitation of civil works hydraulic concrete structures such as navigation locks or stilling basins commonly involves the removal of defective concrete and replacement with new concrete. Steel reinforcing anchors are normally embedded into the base concrete to assist in the attachment of the base concrete to the new concrete. With respect to bonding the steel anchors into the base concrete, this investigation was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of cementitious, vinylester and epoxy grouts in bonding embedment of the anchors. Tensile pullout and long-term creep strain tests were accomplished in this study in correlation with parameters for dry and wet environments and for bond maturity ages of 1, 3,7, and 28 days and 1 year. Tests results indicated all of the grout materials developed sufficient bond strength in pullout and creep tests for dry applications, with the exception of one epoxy material. However, for submerged applications, the epoxy grouts exhibited poor developed bond strength in both pullout and creep tests. As a result, particular caution is recommended for the application of epoxy grouts to embed steel anchors in hardened concrete under submerged conditions.