Interdependent analytical-experimental strategy for study of prestressed natural stone transfer zones

The embodied carbon of natural stone is low, so prestressed segmental natural stone members show huge potential to decarbonise construction. When the tendons are adhesively anchored within the stone, understanding of the axial and bond stress variations along the transfer zones is crucial. Now these two stress variations are in phase along pullout specimens, but antiphase along transfer zones. Accordingly this paper reports a study focused on transfer zones, with the novel feature that algebraic and graphical representations of the predicted transfer zone stresses are employed to define experimental strain gauge layouts within these zones. The tri-material adhesive-interphase-stone shear connection is treated as a unit in all calculations. By alternately inserting the experimentally-inferred interior stresses and the theoretical boundary stresses into the predictive equations, the experimental data perform a dual role. First, they reveal an anti-symmetry of the equations’ coefficients that reflect core mechanics independently confirmed by the theoretical boundary conditions. Second, they enable bond-slip characterisation, which isn’t possible using the boundary conditions. Founded on the validated analysis, a parametric study is conducted to understand the bond stress mechanics aasociated with crucial strain gauge locations in the experimental assembly. The paper concludes by eliciting the benefits of this experimental-analytical interdependency for application to other multi-material transfer zones. • Transfer zone stresses across tri-material adhesive, interphase, stone connection. • Analytical solution used to inform design of transfer zone instrumentation layout. • Test data reveal bond-slip stiffness and anti-symmetry in analytical coefficients. • Via parametric study, analysis highlights crucial instrumentation strategy. • Method is generic and applies to transfer zones of various bond-slip behaviours.