International Concrete Abstracts Portal

Describes a small scale flexure test for the determination of cement- aggregate bond strength. Cylindrical test specimens were prepared by drilling cores in a perpendicular direction through slabs of rock against which mortar had been cast. A special casting procedure eliminated many sources of experimental variation and allowed the bond strengths of different mortars and rock types to be compared directly. Long term tests were conducted by coring the mortar/aggregate slabs at a number of curing times and coefficients of variation of 5 to 10 percent for bond and mortar strengths were obtained. The effect on cement-aggregate bond strength of partial cement replacement by silica fume was evaluated for a number of aggregate types. For siliceous aggregates (glass, obsidian, and quartzite), bond strength was increased significantly by the addition of silica fume; failure tended to occur away from the interface particularly in long term tests. For carbonate rocks (limestone and dolostone), similar bond strengths were obtained at seven days with and without the addition of silica fume. At later ages, silica fume interfered with strengthening of the cement-carbonate rock interface and lower bond strengths were obtained. For specimens not containing silica fume, bond strength increased more rapidly to glass and obsidian than to quartzite, which showed essentially "inert" behavior. This was tentatively attributed to strengthening of the transition zone by a pozzolanic mechanism involving reactive silica from the aggregate. A marked reduction in bond strength occurred with glass specimens containing boosted alkali content. This was attributed to alkali- silica reaction at the interface and was suppressed by the addition of 15 percent silica fume.

Reviews the mechanical properties of the cement-aggregate bond, with particular reference to the inherent difficulties in determining these properties. The properties that are determined experimentally appear to be largely artifacts of the specimen preparation and the test procedures. In particular, bleeding effects, the roughness of the rock surface, and the heterogeneity of the interfacial region make it very difficult to compare experimental results among the different investigations that are found in the literature. The authors conclude that useful measurements of the properties of the cement-aggregate interfacial zone still cannot be made. Therefore, the properties of concrete cannot yet be controlled by systematically altering the nature of the interfacial region.

The size effect caused by post-peak softening in the relation of interface shear stress and slip displacement between a fiber or reinforcing bar and the surrounding matrix was analyzed. The problem was simplified as one- dimensional. It was shown that the post-peak softening leads to localization of slip. The larger the bar or fiber size, the stronger the localization. The size effect in geometrically similar pullout tests of different sizes was found to represent a transition from the case of no size effect for small sizes to the case of a size effect of the same type as in linear elastic fracture mechanics, in which the difference of the pullout stress in the fiber and the residual pullout stress corresponding to the residual interface shear stress is proportional to the inverse square root of bar or fiber size. An analytical expression for the transitional size effect was obtained and was found to approximately agree with the generalized form of the size effect law proposed earlier by Bazant. Measurements of the size effect can be used for identifying the interface properties.

The fracture process of high-strength concrete (HSC) submitted to uniaxial compression was analyzed by means of loading tests on cylinders under special closed loop control. Conclusions were drawn from axial and circumferential strain curves, cross sections of specimens impregnated with a fluorescent dye, and visual observations. The evolution of the internal crack extension was revealed and it was shown that under stable progressive fracture, predominantly aggregate bond failure and crack branching occur with the cracks passing around the coarse aggregates. the onset of damage is explained in terms of elementary force transfer concepts. The influence of maximum aggregate size and fiber addition are also discussed in this paper.

This study of the concrete/rock interface addresses primarily the interface of limestone and mortar (since no coarse aggregate was used in the mix) and, to a lesser extent, mortar and rock salt. Uniaxial tensile tests with closed-loop-control were used to determine the stress-crack opening displacement relationship in the softening regime. This relationship is proposed as the constitutive property in an interface cohesive zone model developed for interface fracture. The validity of such a model was investigated through testing and finite element analysis of compact tension specimens. A theoretical investigation of the effect of the complex singularity attributed to an interface crack was performed within the framework of the interface cohesive zone model. Although the theoretical analyses included only a semi-infinite geometry and was, therefore, limited in scope, it was found capable of addressing many of the characteristics of quasi-brittle fracture. Experimental tools used involved a scanning electron microscope to observe microscopic features of the interface that are responsible for strength and toughness. The electronic speckle pattern interferometry technique was used to evaluate pre-peak crack growth. Results indicate that the mechanisms responsible for strength and toughness at the interface are different and that the characteristics of the fracture at the interface is qualitatively similar to that of any other quasi-brittle material.