A reliable approach for determining concrete strength in structures by using cores

As known, concrete classes are described as strength of standard specimens produced and kept in ideal conditions, not including reinforcement and not subjected to any load effect before. Under the circumstances, transforming core strengths to the standard specimen strength is necessary and considering all parameters, affected on the core strength, is inevitable. In fact, effects of the reinforcement and the load history on concrete strength are generally neglected when these mentioned transforms are performing. The main purpose of this paper is investigating the effects of the reinforcement and the load history on the core strength. This investigation is experimentally performed on cores drilled from specimens having different keeping conditions, reinforced, unreinforced, subjected to bending and central pressure in various proportions of failure load during specified periods. Obtained results show that the importance of these effects cannot be neglected.