Comparison of Anchorage Strength of Bonded-In Steel Bars with Epoxy Resin, Varying the Superficial Treatments and Moisture after Bonding, Using Corymbia citriodora Wood

The pull out of steel bars bonded-in in structural wood pieces present highly satisfactory performance concerning esthetics, strength and connection stiffness, nevertheless, great concerns arise relating to the bonding quality control, making some authors suggest that the bonding operation must be done in a factory environment with the adequate quality control and by specialized people. Several studies have been published analyzing methods of production control or the effect of common contaminators, present in the bonding area which might affect the global capacity of the connection. In this work, anchorage strength was evaluated under the effects of four superficial treatments on the anchorage area of steel bars and increasing and decreasing moisture variations after bonding. The adhesive used was the epoxy resin Sikadur32 Fluid and the steel bars were perpendicularly fixed to the wood fibers, obtained through a random sample of a lot of sawed Corymbia citriodora wood. In 98.70% of rupture, specimen occurred due to loss of resin adhesion on the bar surface, due to chemical and mechanical loss adhesion.