Experimental studies on shear properties of cold joints of rock-filled concrete

Rock filled concrete (RFC), a new type of mass concrete, has been widely used in the construction of hydraulic engineering structures in China. Due to the huge construction volume, it has to be casted layer by layer and the cold joints are produced in the RFC dams as a result. The shear capacity of this weak interface significantly affects the dam stability against sliding, but less research effort has been made on it. Benefit from the direct shear test on concrete-rock interface in the literature, the series of large size tests on the direct shear resistance of the RFC cold joints are carried out in this study. The preliminary results include the shear resistance parameters and discussion on the test methods of the RFC cold joints.