Quality control of structural concrete has been conducted for several decades based mainly on the results of axial compression tests. This kind of test, although widely used, is not exempt from errors and has some considerable drawbacks that may affect its reliability, such as the need for appropriate and careful specimen conditioning and adoption of adequate capping techniques. For these reasons, it would be useful to have complementary or alternative ways to check compressive strength, in order to improve concrete quality control. The use of a bond test to monitor concrete strength is being proposed by an international group of researchers from France, Tunisia and Brazil as a potential means to this end. Given the fact that the link between bond resistance and concrete strength is already well established, this type of test seems to be a viable alternative to traditional methods. Nonetheless, to check if the underlying principle is sound when used in different circumstances, the group has been gathering data from several studies conducted by different researchers in various countries, with distinct concretes and rebar types. An analysis of the data collected shows that there is a clear and strong correlation between bond resistance and compressive strength, no matter the influence of other variables. This result validates the basic idea of using an Appropriate Pull-Out (APULOT) bond test to assess concrete strength. If the general principle is valid for random data obtained from different studies, the definition of a clear and appropriate test will probably lead to the reduction of experimental noise and increase the precision of the strength estimates obtained using this method.
bond stress; concrete compressive strength; quality control of concrete; pull-out test