Issue 42

W. De Corte et alii, Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale, 42 (2017) 147-160; DOI: 10.3221/IGF-ESIS.42.16 147 Focused on Mechanical Fatigue of Metals Generalised fracture mechanics approach to the interfacial failure analysis of a bonded steel-concrete joint Wouter De Corte, Peter Helincks, Veerle Boel Research Group Schoonmeersen, Department of Structural Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Ghent University Valentin Vaerwyckweg 1, B-9000, Ghent, Belgium. Wouter.DeCorte@UGent.be, Peter.Helincks@UGent.be, Veerle.Boel@UGent.be Jan Klusák CEITEC IPM, Institute of Physics of Materials, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Žižkova 22, Brno 616 62, Czech Republic. klusak@ipm.cz Stanislav Seitl Institute of Physics of Materials, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Žižkova 22, 616 62 Brno, Czech Republic. seitl@ipm.cz Geert De Schutter Magnel Laboratory for Concrete Research, Department of Structural Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Ghent University, Technologiepark-Zwijnaarde 904, B-9052, Ghent, Belgium. Geert.Deschutter@ugent.be A BSTRACT . Steel-concrete joints are often made by welded shear studs. However, this connection reduces the fatigue strength, especially in situations where locally concentrated loads occur with a large number of load cycles e.g. in bridge decks. In this paper the shear bond strength between steel and ultra- high performance concrete (UHPC) without welded mechanical shear connectors is evaluated through push-out tests and a generalized fracture mechanics approach based on analytical and finite element analyses. The connection is achieved by an epoxy adhesive layer gritted with granules. In the tests, specimens made with various manners of preparation of the epoxy interlayer are tested experimentally. Numerical-analytical 2D and 3D modelling of a steel-concrete connection is performed without and with the epoxy interlayer. The model of a bi-material notch with various geometrical and material properties is used to simulate various singular stress concentrators that can be responsible for failure initiation. Thus conditions of crack initiation can be predicted from knowledge of the standard mechanical and fracture-mechanics properties of particular materials. Results of the fracture-mechanics studies are compared with each other and with Citation: De Corte, W., Klusák, J., Helincks, P., Seitl, S., Boel, V., De Schutter, G., Generalised fracture mechanics approach to the failure analysis of a bonded steel-concrete joint, Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale, 42 (2017) 147-160. Received: 16.06.2017 Accepted: 21.06.2017 Published: 01.10.2017 Copyright: © 2017 This is an open access article under the terms of the CC-BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.