Effects of bolt profile and grout mixture on shearing behaviors of bolt-grout interface

Abstract

Shearing behavior and failure mechanism of bolt-grout interface are of great significance for load transfer capacity and design of rock bolting system. In this paper, direct shear tests on bolt-grout interfaces under constant normal load (CNL) conditions were conducted to investigate the effects of bolt profile (i.e. rib spacing and rib height) and grout mixture on the bolt-grout interface in terms of mechanical behaviors and failure modes. Test results showed that the peak shear strength and the deformation capacity of the bolt-grout interface are highly dependent on the bolt profile and grout mixture, suggesting that bolt performances can be optimized, which were unfortunately ignored in the previous studies. A new interface failure mode, i.e. ‘sheared-crush’ mode, was proposed, which was characterized by progressive crush failure of the grout asperities between steel ribs during shearing. It was shown that the interface failure mode mainly depends on the normal stress level and rib spacing, compared with the rib height and grout mixture for the range of tested parameters in this study. Keywords: Bolt-grout interface, Direct shear test, Shear behavior, Failure mode, Bolt profiles