Influence of surface texture on sand–steel interface strength response

Abstract

The surface texture of the interface material plays a significant role in the shear behaviour of soil–continuum interface. This study investigates the influence of surface texture of steel on the shear behaviour of sand–steel interface using different types of steel counterfaces with distinct texturing patterns. The patterns include concentric circular asperities, square-tiled surfaces with equally spaced individual asperities and ruled ribbed asperities oriented parallel, perpendicular and at an angle to the shear direction. The results show that the texturing pattern of the steel counterface significantly affects the shear strength of the sand–steel interface. The peak and residual interface friction angles for the sand–steel interfaces with different texturing patterns (with identical asperity height and spacing) varied from 26·6° to 37·5° and 14·2° to 28·7°, respectively. Moreover, the surface with ruled ribs/asperities inclined at right angle to the shear direction shows the maximum interface shear strength among all the texturing patterns tested. The findings presented herein are imperative for a realistic assessment of the performance of geotechnical structures involving soil–steel interaction.