The Interface Behaviour between Granular Soils and Concrete

Interface between construction materials and soil plays an important role in many geotechnical systems, including pile foundations, retaining walls and deep foundations. To be able to control the large number of parameters affecting the soil to concrete interface behavior, granular soil was manufactured using fly ash by cold bonding pelletization technique with predetermined shape and crushing strength.In practice, it is a common approach to multiply the internal friction angle with a reduction factor and assume this value as the interface friction angle. However, direct shear tests on the synthetic aggregates showed that the interface performance is highly related with crushing strength, shape and surface characteristics of granular materials, and also the surface characteristics of the concrete in contact. In geotechnical applications where soil and concrete are in touch, the behavior within the working conditions should be carefully studied and further attention must be paid on the physical and mechanical characteristics of the materials.