Imperfect Plane Dry Joints under Pressure

High performance and ultra-high performance concrete are commonly used in modular constructions. By using dry joints the construction progress can be accelerated. Thus the project can be more efficient. Due to unevenness in plane dry joints additional stress occurs. On the example of wall panels and circular ring shaped elements the effect on stress distribution and stress development in the concrete member because of plane dry joints with undulations are discussed. The elements are loaded by a uniform distributed compressive stress in the undisturbed regions perpendicular to the joint. This is a common load case due to prestressing in modular constructions. To discuss the behavior of concrete members under such conditions a FEM simulation is used. On specific results it is shown that no general statement can be done for such uneven connections. The effect of imperfect plane dry joints can only be assessed on case studies.