Effect of roughness on shear behavior of red clay – concrete interface in large-scale direct shear tests

Few studies have focused on evaluating regular surface roughness and its effect on interfacial shear behavior of the red clay – concrete interface. This paper presents the results of a series of laboratory large-scale direct shear tests conducted using different types of red clay – concrete interfaces. The objective is to examine the effect of surface roughness on these types of soil–concrete interfaces. In the smooth-interface tests, the measured peak and residual shear strength values are very close to each other, with no observed shear dilation. The surface roughness is found to have a remarkable effect on the interfacial shear strength and shear behavior, with the shear strength increasing with increased surface roughness level. The shear dilation is likely to occur on rougher interfaces under lower confining pressure due to the behavior of compressed clay matrices. Owing to the clay matrix’s cohesion and friction, the interfacial shear strength on rough interfaces consists of cohesive and frictional forces between the clay and concrete surfaces. The friction angle value is observed to fluctuate between the clay’s friction angle and the smooth interface’s friction angle. This can be related to the position change of the shear failure slip plane. The confining pressure and surface roughness could change the shear failure plane’s position on the interface. Furthermore, the red clay – structure interface is usually known as the weakest part in the mechanical safety assessment.