• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
• /
• 1998.04a
• /
• pp.359-364
• /
• 1998

The interfacial zone in concrete materials is extensive, geometrically complex, and constitutes inherently weak zones that limit the concrete performance. Motar-aggregate interfaces play a major role in the fracture processing in concrete composites. Also, the interfacial bond considerably influence mechanical properties of concrete such as modulus of elasticity, strength, and fracture energy, Characterization of the interfacial properties is, therefore, essential to overcome the limitations associated with the interfaces. an objective of this paper is to investigate the corelationship between the fracture toughness of mortar-aggregate interface and the concrete properties such as strengths and elastic moduli. It is observed from the test results that interface fracture toughness is closely related with the compressive strength rather than other properties. At early ages, the development of both tensile strength and elastic modulus are much greater thatn that of both interface fracture toughness and compressive strength.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
• /
• v.17 no.4 s.88
• /
• pp.637-643
• /
• 2005

Reinforced concrete beams or slabs are often strengthened or repaired using polymer modified cement concrete Stresses can develop in the structure by ambient temperature changes because thermal coefficients of the repair material and the existing concrete are typically different. Especially, shear stress often causes debonding of the interface. In this study, a rational procedure was developed where anchors can be designed in strengthened or repaired concrete members to prevent debonding at the interface. The current design procedure considers thicknesses and elastic moduli of the repair material and existing concrete, ambient temperature change, length, and beam-vs.-slab action. The procedure is also applicable to stresses developed by differential drying shrinkage.

• Computers and Concrete
• /
• v.2 no.6
• /
• pp.499-516
• /
• 2005

A composite model is used to represent the heterogeneity of plain concrete consisting of coarse aggregates, mortar matrix and the mortar-aggregate interface. The composite elements of plain concrete are modeled using triangular finite element units which have six interface nodes along the sides. Fracture is captured through a constitutive single branch softening-fracture law at the interface nodes, which bounds the elastic domain inside each triangular unit. The inelastic displacement at an interface node represents the crack opening or sliding displacement and is conjugate to the internodal force. The path-dependent softening behaviour is developed within a quasi-prescribed displacement control formulation. The crack profile is restricted to the interface boundaries of the defined mesh. No re-meshing is carried out. Solutions to the rate formulation are obtained using a mathematical programming procedure in the form of a linear complementary problem. An event by event solution strategy is adopted to eliminate solutions with simultaneous formation of softening zones in symmetric problems. The composite plain concrete model is compared to experimental results for the tensile crack growth in a Brazilian test and three-point bending tests on different sized specimens. The model is also used to simulate wedge-type shear-compression failure directly under the loading platen of a Brazilian test.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Hazard Mitigation
• /
• v.8 no.5
• /
• pp.7-13
• /
• 2008

This paper presents experimental and analysis studies about both the corroded steel expansion and the variation of poor bonding range between steel and concrete. A loss of overall bonding capacity at the concrete-steel interface is evaluated experimentally and crack patterns at the bottom of the concrete are presented here. Steel-concrete interface is covered by rubber due to present local loss of the concrete-steel interface bonding capacity. In case of crack analysis performed by commercial FEM programs. we investigated crack‘s pattern and location. Finally, it is concluded that overall flexural capacity of the reinforced concrete structure is increased by the corroded steel expansion and is dependent of the bonding range at the steel- concrete interface. These results give an important factor to decide a life of reinforced concrete structures.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
• /
• 2016.10a
• /
• pp.81-82
• /
• 2016

The present study aims to derive optimal interface treatment conditions for emulating a monolithic construction. The joints in this construction are formed through the bonding shear evaluation method during the placement of ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) and normal strength concrete (NSC). The evaluation items include push-off tests for homogeneous UHPC + UHPC and heterogeneous NSC + UHPC. The experimental samples comprised a monolithic placement as the baseline, two levels for the separated placement according to the compression strength of concrete, and five levels for the interface treatment. The increase in the number of grooves and their cross-sectional areas only slightly influenced the bonding shear performance. The optimal interface treatment method for the homogeneous UHPC + UHPC construction grooves was at least 30mm. The heterogeneous NSC + UHPC construction should utilize waterjet roughening to expose the aggregate for the increased roughness.

• Computers and Concrete
• /
• v.26 no.3
• /
• pp.257-273
• /
• 2020

Concrete bond strength with steel re-bars depends on multiple factors including concrete-steel interface and mechanical properties of concrete. However, the hydration development of cementitious paste, and in turn the mechanical properties of concrete, are negatively affected by cold weather. This study aimed at exploring the concrete-steel bonding behavior in concrete cast and cured under freezing temperatures. Three concrete mixtures were cast and cured at -10 and -20℃. The mixtures were protected using conventional insulation blankets and a hybrid system consisting of insulation blankets and phase change materials. The mixtures comprised General Use cement, fly ash (20%), nano-silica (6%) and calcium nitrate-nitrite as a cold weather admixture system. The mixtures were tested in terms of internal temperature, compressive, tensile strengths, and modulus of elasticity. In addition, the bond strength between concrete and steel re-bars were evaluated by a pull-out test, while the quality of the interface between concrete and steel was assessed by thermal and microscopy studies. In addition, the internal heat evolution and force-slip relationship were modeled based on energy conservation and stress-strain relationships, respectively using three-dimensional (3D) finite-element software. The results showed the reliability of the proposed models to accurately predict concrete heat evolution as well as bond strength relative to experimental data. The hybrid protection system and nano-modified concrete mixtures produced good quality concrete-steel interface with adequate bond strength, without need for heating operations before casting and during curing under freezing temperatures down to -20℃.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
• /
• v.3 no.2
• /
• pp.81-90
• /
• 2009

This paper proposes a semi analytical model to describe the pore structure of concrete by a set of simple equations. The relationship between the porosity and the microstructure of concrete has been considered when constructing the analytical model. The microstructure includes the interface transition zone (ITZ) between aggregates and cement paste. The predicting model of porosity was developed with considering the ITZ for various mixing of mortar and concrete. The proposed model is validated by the rapid experimental programs. Although the proposed model is semi-analytical and relatively simple, this model could be reasonably utilized for the durability design and adapted for predicting the service life of concrete structures.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.23 no.1
• /
• pp.39-50
• /
• 2020

In order to understand the shear mechanical properties of the interface between clay and structure and better serve the practical engineering projects, it is critical to conduct shear tests on the clay-structure interface. In this work, the direct shear test of clay-concrete slab with different joint roughness coefficient (JRC) of the interface and different normal stress is performed in the laboratory. Our experimental results show that (1) shear strength of the interface between clay and structure is greatly affected by the change of normal stress under the same condition of JRC and shear stress of the interface gradually increases with increasing normal stress; (2) there is a critical value JRC_cr in the roughness coefficient of the interface; (3) the relationship between shear strength and normal stress can be described by the Mohr Coulomb failure criterion, and the cohesion and friction angle of the interface under different roughness conditions can be calculated accordingly. We find that there also exists a critical value JRC_cr for cohesion and the cohesion of the interface increases first and then decreases as JRC increases. Moreover, the friction angle of the interface fluctuates with the change of JRC and it is always smaller than the internal friction angle of clay used in this experiment; (4) the failure type of the interface of the clay-concrete slab is type I sliding failure and does not change with varying JRC when the normal stress is small enough. When the normal stress increases to a certain extent, the failure type of the interface will gradually change from shear failure to type II sliding failure with the increment of JRC.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
• /
• v.17 no.5 s.89
• /
• pp.829-834
• /
• 2005

A series of reinforced G109 type specimens was fabricated and pended with a 15 weight percent NaCl solution. Mix design variables included 1) two cement alkalinities (equivalent alkalinities of 0.32 and 1.08), 2) w/c 0.50 and 3) two rebar surface conditions (as-received and wire-brushed). Potential and macro-cell current between top and bottom bars were monitored to determine corrosion initiation time. Once corrosion was initiated, the specimen was ultimately autopsied to perform visual inspection, and the procedure included determination of the number and size of air voids along the top half of the upper steel surface. This size determination was based upon a diameter measurement assuming the air voids to be half spheres or ellipse. The followings were reached based upon the visual inspection of G109 specimens that were autopsied to date. First, voids at the steel-concrete interface facilitated passive film breakdown and onset of localized corrosion. Based upon this, the initiation mechanism probably involved a concentration cell with contiguous concrete coated and bare steel serving as cathodes and anodes, respectively. Second, the corrosion tended to initiate at relatively large voids. Third, specimens with wire-brushed steel had a lower number of voids at the interface for both cement alkalinities, suggesting that air voids preferentially formed on the rough as-received surface compared to the smooth wire brushed one.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.47 no.4
• /
• pp.575-598
• /
• 2013

The study presents the results of an experimental program concerning the shear force transfer between reinforced concrete (RC) jackets and existing columns with damages. In order to investigate the effectiveness of the repair method applied and the contribution of each shear transfer mechanism of the interface. It includes 22 concrete columns (core) (of 24,37MPa concrete strength) with square section (150mm side, 500 mm height and scale 1:2). Ten columns had initial construction damages and twelve were subjected to initial axial load. Sixteen columns have full jacketing at all four faces with 80mm thickness (of 31,7MPa concrete strength) and contain longitudinal bars (of 500MPa nominal strength) and closed stirrups spaced at 25mm, 50mm or 100mm (of 220MPa nominal strength). Fourteen of them contain dowels at the interface between old and new concrete. All columns were subjected to repeated (pseudo-seismic) axial compression with increasing deformation cycles up to failure with or without jacketing. Two load patterns were selected to examine the difference of the behavior of columns. The effects of the initial damages, of the reinforcement of the interface (dowels) and of the confinement generated by the stirrups are investigated through axial- deformation (slip) diagrams and the energy absorbed diagrams. The results indicate that the initial damages affect the total behavior of the column and the capacity of the interface to shear mechanisms and to slip: a) the maximum bearing load of old column is decreased affecting at the same time the loading capacity of the jacketed element, b) suitable repair of initially damaged specimens increases the capacity of the jacketed column to transfer load through the interface.