Experimental and Finite Element Study to Determine the Mechanical Properties and Bond Between Repair Mortars and Concrete Substrates

Abstract

The separation between repair mortars and the concrete substrate is one of the serious problems in repairing concrete structures. One of the main causes of this separation is the lack of proper and, consequently, excessive shrinkage of the repair mortar, which reduces the bond strength between the concrete substrate and the repair layer and has an adverse effect on the compressive and tensile strength of the repair mortars. In this paper, the mechanical properties, shrinkage of repair mortars, as well as their shear and tensile bond strength is investigated on the concrete substrate of different ages under the curings of abandoned in the laboratory space, water-submerged and curing agent. In-situ friction-transfer and pull-off methods are used to measure adhesion. Furthermore, the relationships between compressive strength, tensile strength, and readings are obtained from friction-transfer and pull-off methods on repair mortars and the stress distribution method used in the above-mentioned methods are presented using nonlinear finite element analysis (Abaqus/CAE). The results indicate a significant effect of method on shrinkage and mechanical properties of repair mortars; as a result, effective increases the shear and tensile bond strength at the substrate and repair layer joint boundary. It is also observed that there is a linear relationship between the experimental results obtained from the two methods used in this study with a high correlation coefficient, highly consistent with the results obtained from nonlinear finite element analysis. Thus, they can be used as in-situ methods for determining the compressive and tensile strength of repair mortars.