Effect of Chemical Composition of Fine Aggregate on the Frictional Behavior of Concrete–Soil Interface under Sulfuric Acid Environment

Abstract

Through direct shear tests, this paper aimed to research the effect of fine marble aggregate on the shear strength and fractal dimension of the interface between soil and concrete corroded by sulfuric acid. More realistic concrete rough surfaces than the artificially roughened surfaces were formed by immersing four concrete plates in plastic buckets filled with sulfuric acid for different periods of time. The sand was adopted to imitate the soil. 3D laser scanner was employed to obtain the digital shapes of concrete plates subjected to sulfuric acid, and the rough surfaces were evaluated by fractal dimension. Large direct shear experiments were performed to obtain the curves of the interface shear stress and shear displacement between sand and corroded concrete plate. The method of data fitting was adopted to calculate the parameters of shear strength (i.e., friction angle and the cohesive) and the parameters of the Clough–Duncan hyperbolic model. The results indicated that as the corrosion days increased, the surface of the concrete plate became rougher, the surface fractal dimensions of the concrete corroded by sulfuric acid became bigger, and the interface friction angle became greater. The friction angle of the interface and the fractal dimensions of the surface of the concrete plate containing crushed gravel and marble sand were smaller than that of the concrete plate containing crushed gravel and river sand.

Keywords

• direct shear test
• sulfuric acid
• fine marble aggregate
• fractal dimension
• 3D laser scanning technique