Lightweight Aggregate Concrete – LAC – is increasingly employed as a construction material for façades in order to meet the growing demands placed on building shell physics. LAC possesses very good thermal insulation properties and extremely low deadweight. The challenge, however, consists in assuring the load-bearing capacity of this particularly light façade element. As opposed to light-weight concrete with a closed microstructure, it is intended that cavities remain between the aggregate in LAC even after compaction in order to improve thermal insulation properties. The consequence is a reduction in the bonding effect between the reinforcement and concrete. Force transmission into ribbed rebar can thus not be guaranteed when using straight bar ends. Experimental investigations were carried out with differing anchor variations in order to gain some fundamental knowledge about anchoring reinforcements in LAC. This paper will describe and evaluate the influence of end hooks on pull-out load-bearing capacity in relation to their positioning and alignment in a construction element.
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