Abstract
Shear performance of plain UHPC (ultrahigh-performance concrete) construction joints is studied in both experimental and analytical ways. In push-off tests, three different contact surfaces of the construction joint were considered, while the case without any joint was provided for the reference. Test results indicate that the geometry of contact surfaces greatly affects shear performance of the construction joint. With simplifying structural behavior of contact surfaces and UHPC substrate, the finite-element analysis model is developed for every case studied by utilizing the ABAQUS software and validated against the test results. Agreement between experimental and numerical simulation results is excellent especially in terms of displacement, strength, and failure mechanism. It is expected that the present work provides a basis for further study on reinforced UHPC construction joints.
Highlights
Ultrahigh-performance concrete (UHPC) is a class of concrete characterized by exceptionally high compressive/tensile strengths, ductility, toughness, flowability, and durability [1, 2]
Despite the various mix proportions of UHPC, it is widely known that higher strengths of the UHPC are obtained by the silica fumecement mixture with a low water-cement ratio and the presence of very fine aggregates [3], while ductility has been enhanced by steel fibers [4]
Since the first UHPC bridge in Canada (1997), there have been some construction projects and design recommendations regarding the use of UHPC over the world [5,6,7]
Summary
Ultrahigh-performance concrete (UHPC) is a class of concrete characterized by exceptionally high compressive/tensile strengths, ductility, toughness, flowability, and durability [1, 2]. Since the first UHPC bridge in Canada (1997), there have been some construction projects and design recommendations regarding the use of UHPC over the world [5,6,7] As ordinary concrete, this UHPC can be either fabricated as precast members at a plant or cast in place at a construction site. The effect of the surface morphology of construction joints is recently investigated in an experimental way [27] All these efforts are useful to account for shear transfer at the interface, but the absence of an analytical study undermines the efforts to draw general conclusions. As part of ongoing activities to accelerate uses of UHPC in actual construction for the further development of reinforced UHPC construction joints, in this study, shear performance of plain UHPC construction joints is investigated in both experimental and analytical ways. We would like to emphasize that every developed numerical model in the present work is based on simplified viewpoints on failure mechanisms, where models are developed as objective as possible with the help of the current design code and previous research and experiments
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