Concrete-sand interface in direct shear tests

Abstract

Large-scale direct shear tests are conducted to study the effects of roughness on strength and dilation for concrete-sand interface. The degree of the strain-softening becomes more considerable with the increase of R. Unlike the tests of interface with random grooves, the shear strength of structure-sand interfaces with regular grooves can be greater than shear strength of sand-sand. Peak interface efficiency increases linearly with R in a semi-logarithmic scale. Meanwhile, increasing normal stress gradually can restrain the behavior of dilation as well as reduce the effect of R on interface dilation.