Interface shear strength of concrete-to concrete bond with and without projecting steel reinforcement

Abstract

Composite concrete consists of two elements cast at different times which are the concrete base and concrete topping. To achieve composite action, interface shear strength must be sufficient to resist the sliding motion between the two concrete surfaces in contact. The interface shear strength is mainly depended on concrete cohesion, friction and dowel action. A total of 36 “push-off” tests were performed to study the interface shear strength and to assess the influence of surface texture and steel reinforcement crossing the interface. Three different concrete base surfaces are prepared which include smooth or “left as-cast”, roughened by wire-brushing in the transverse direction and steel reinforcement projecting from the concrete base. Eurocode 2 provides design equations for determining the interface shear strength with different surface textures and also the one where projecting steel reinforcement crosses the interface. The experimental results show that the transverse roughened surface produced the highest interface shear strength of 1.89 N/mm2 (sn = 0 N/mm2), 4.69 N/mm2 (sn = 0.5 N/mm2), 5.97 N/mm2 (sn = 1.0 N/mm2) and 6.42 N/mm2 (sn = 1.5 N/mm2) compared with the other surface textures. This proves that the increase in the degree of roughness contributes to higher concrete cohesion and friction coefficient. However, for the surface with projecting steel reinforcement, the failure is not sudden as experienced by the surface without one. This is due to the contribution of the clamping stress from the dowel action of the steel reinforcements. Meanwhile, for specimens without any projecting steel reinforcements, the interface shear strength depended solely on friction and concrete cohesion of the surface textures. The interface shear strength of surface with and without the projecting steel reinforcement can be predicted using the Mohr-Coulomb failure envelope. This paper also proposed design expressions for concrete-to-concrete bond on surfaces provided with and without projecting steel reinforcement that can be adopted in Eurocode 2.