LAUSR

We study the influence of the shape and sizes of defects on the strength of thermally hardened steel reinforcement and construct the stress-strain diagrams for reinforcements with different types of defects. For the first time, the method of binarization of images is used for the evaluation of the areas of fracture surfaces of samples with an aim to establish true critical stresses. It is shown that isolated sharp defects are more dangerous than a system of defects of this kind or long isolated corrosion defects. We also demonstrate the advantage of application of true stresses for the evaluation of strength of the reinforcement.