Tensile and shear capacity of post-installed chemical adhesive anchors in lightweight concrete

Due to construction efficiency and performance, chemical anchors have been widely applied to long-span or high-rise structures or infrastructures. This study investigates the capacity of post-installed anchors in concrete with lightweight aggregates. Extensive static experiments are conducted to investigate tensile and shear capacities of chemical adhesive anchors in lightweight concrete. Both confined and unconfined tensile conditions are considered. In total, 102 tests are performed with various anchor diameters (12–30 mm), embedment depths (80–300 mm), and types of concrete. The test results show that cone breakout and combined failures dominate the unconfined tensile tests, which have about 40% capacity for the anchors in normal-weight concrete. Chemical adhesive anchor failure models in lightweight concrete are also summarized with respect to the input parameters. Finally, multiple nonlinear regression analyses are further performed, and revised empirical and analytical equations are proposed for lightweight concrete to accommodate different failure modes.