The authors thank Messrs. Rajagopalan and Parameswaran for their contribution to the discussion of their paper on "A Theory for the Flexural Strength of Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete." Unfortunately the discussion is liberally laced with well-known and well-established elementary text-book mechanics. The authors would not therefore refer to these but direct their comments to the more important points raised in the discussion.
All stress distributions in concrete are bound to be non-linear due to the inherent heterogeneity and discontinuity of the material. This is more so with bond stress since the parameters which influence the bond between the matrix and steel are far too numerous and interdependent to produce anything as simple as a linear stress distribution. Theoretically, of course, it is possible to obtain all kinds of non-linear bond stress d~stributions depending on the assumptions made but to what extent they are valid or represent the real situation is any one's guess. Indeed if one looks at the analogous problem in reinforced concrete -and the authors would quote just one publication given in Ref. 1 -the difficulties and pitfalls of theoretically defining the bond stress distribution between the cement-based matrix and steel or any other fiber should be obvious.