Experimental and Numerical Analysis of the Shear Behaviour of Cemented Concrete-Rock Joints

The shear behaviour of cemented concrete-rock joints is a key factor affecting the shear resistance of dam foundations, arch bridge foundations, rock socketed piles and rock bolts in rock engineering. This paper presents an experimental and numerical investigation of the shear behaviour of cemented concrete-rock joints by direct shear tests. In this study we focused on the bond strength of cemented concrete-rock joints, so limestone with smooth surfaces was used for samples preparation to reduce the roughness effect. The experimental results show that the shear strength of joints with good adhesion is strongly dependent on the bond strength of the cohesive interfaces when the applied normal stress is less than 6 MPa. In addition, the sudden and gradual bond failure processes of the cohesive interfaces were observed with an increase of the normal stress. A simple, yet realistic, model of cemented concrete-rock joint is proposed to simulate the observed behaviour, including elastic behaviour of the bond before peak shear stress and post-peak behaviour due to bond failure and friction increase. Finally, the parameters analysis and calibration of the proposed model are presented.