The shear strength of the interface between artificial rock and printed concrete at super-early ages

3D concrete printing has the potential to replace shotcrete for construction of linings of tunnels in hard rock. The shear strength of the interface between rock and printed concrete is vital, especially at super-early ages. However, traditional methods for testing the shear strength of the interface, e.g., the direct shear test, are time-consuming and result in a high variability for fast-hardening printed concrete. In this paper, a new fast bond shear test is proposed. Each test can be completed in 1 min, with another 2 min for preparing the next test. The influence of the matrix composition, the age of the printed matrices, and the interface roughness of the artificial rock substrate on the shear strength of the interface was experimentally studied. The tests were conducted at the age of the matrices at the 1st, the 4th, the 8th, the 16th, the 32nd, and the 64th min after its final setting. A dimensionless formula was established to calculate the shear strength, accounting for the age of the printed matrices, the interface roughness, and the shear failure modes. It was validated by comparing the calculated results and the experimental results of one group of samples.