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Shear performance of plain UHPC (ultrahigh-performance concrete) construction joints is studied in both experimental and analytical ways. In push-off tests, three different contact surfaces of the construction joint were considered, while the case without any joint was provided for the reference. Test results indicate that the geometry of contact surfaces greatly affects shear performance of the construction joint. With simplifying structural behavior of contact surfaces and UHPC substrate, the finite-element analysis model is developed for every case studied by utilizing the ABAQUS software and validated against the test results. Agreement between experimental and numerical simulation results is excellent especially in terms of displacement, strength, and failure mechanism. It is expected that the present work provides a basis for further study on reinforced UHPC construction joints.

This study set out to derive the optimal conditions for ensuring the monolithicity of ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC). Direct shear tests were performed to examine the influence on the bonding shear performance. The experimental variables included tamping and delay, which were set to 0, 15, 30, and 60 min. SEM and XRD analyses of the microstructure and composition were performed. The direct shear tests showed that the bonding shear strength was enhanced by the addition of tamping. For the normal-strength concrete (NSC), it is thought that a monolithicity of around 95% can be attained with a cold joint formation delay up to 60 min. In contrast, while the normalized bonding shear strength reduction of UHPC with a delay of 15 min was the lowest at around 8%, a dramatic degradation in the bonding shear performance was observed after 15 min. XRD analyses of the middle and surface sections revealed the composition of the thin film formed at the surface of the UHPC and, as a result, the main component appeared to be SiO2, which is believed to be a result of the rising of the SiO2-based filler, used as an admixture in this study, towards the surface, due to its low specific gravity.