Experimental study on oblique-shear performance of splicing joint for precast ultrahigh-performance concrete segmental bridges

Abstract

This paper aims to study the effect of the normal stress on the shear performance of splicing joints for precast ultrahigh-performance concrete (UHPC) segmental bridges (PUSBs), an oblique-shear joint is designed to decompose the vertical force into a normal force and a shear force for the joint. The effect of the number, height and inclination angle of the keys on the bearing capacity of the joint is studied by 19 oblique-shear joints. Then, the bearing capacity and failure modes are analyzed significantly. The results show that the failure modes of the joints are shear failure, compression-shear failure and splitting failure, all showing primarily brittle failure. Moreover, the proportion of shear stress in the specimens increases with the increase of the inclination angle of the joint, and the shear capacity of the specimens decreases. Additionally, the shear capacity of the specimens increases with the increase of the height of the keys. After that, we derive a new formula for calculating the shear capacity utilizing Mohr’s stress circle theory and Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion, i.e., the interfacial frictional coefficient is 0.94 and the shear capacity of keys is 0.06. One may find the present formula shows a high guarantee by comparing with those from references. The formula established in this paper may be used to calculate the shear capacity of splicing joint of precast ultrahigh-performance concrete segmental bridges.