Experimental Study of the Shear Strength of Bonded Concrete–Rock Interfaces: Surface Morphology and Scale Effect

The shear strength of the concrete–rock interface is a key factor to justify the stability of a hydraulic structure foundation. The Mohr–Coulomb failure criterion is usually used as shear strength and evaluated by extrapolating shear tests results carried out in a laboratory on small-sized samples. This paper presents an experimental study on the concrete–rock interface shear behavior. The effect of rock surface morphology on shear behavior was studied by performing laboratory direct shear tests on prepared square samples with a previously characterized rock surface. The scale effect and the test conditions were also studied by comparing the results to those obtained by performing usual laboratory shear tests on cored samples at lower scale. The tested interfaces were composed of the same concrete and granite and have a natural rock surface. The results displayed that the peak shear strength is strongly dependent on the concrete–rock bonding, the rock surface morphology and the applied normal load. A new surface morphology description tool was developed in order to characterize the main waviness. Moreover, the concrete–rock shear behavior at medium scale was reproduced by a 2D finite elements model to study the stress distribution along the sheared interface. Under low normal load, the concrete–rock adhesion is thus progressively mobilized according to the waviness on the rock surface and the local shear failure mechanisms depend on the type of this main waviness. Consequently the shear strength of a concrete–rock interface must be analyzed with respect to the various morphology aspects on its rock surface.