Shear Strength of Partially Bonded Concrete–Rock Interfaces for Application in Dam Stability Analyses

The shear strength of the concrete–rock interface has a substantial influence on the sliding stability of concrete gravity dams founded on rock. While several studies have been done on concrete–rock contacts, there remains uncertainty regarding the peak shear strength of partially bonded interfaces. There exists, in particular, an uncertainty regarding the contribution from surface roughness of the unbonded parts to the peak shear strength of the interface due to the dependency of mobilized strength on shear displacement. In this study, a series of 24 direct shear tests are performed under CNL conditions on concrete–rock samples with different bonding conditions. Tests on samples with fully bonded and unbonded interfaces are conducted to study the strain compatibility of the different contacts, while the results of samples with partially bonded interfaces are evaluated in the context of linking the joint roughness of the unbonded parts to the peak shear strength of the interface. The results indicate that a significant part of the surface roughness of the unbonded parts is mobilized prior to degradation of bond strength, in particular for interfaces with low bonding percentages. It is recommended that further research should be conducted to understand how the contribution from roughness change with an increase in scale and degree of matedness.