Peer Review History

Original SubmissionDecember 3, 2023
Decision Letter - Xun Xi, Editor

PONE-D-23-40490Effects of different roughness on brazilian splitting characteristics of rock-concrete interfacePLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Chen,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

Please address all the comments one by one. 

Please submit your revised manuscript by Feb 17 2024 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:

  • A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.
  • A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.
  • An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Xun Xi

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Journal Requirements:

When submitting your revision, we need you to address these additional requirements.

1. Please ensure that your manuscript meets PLOS ONE's style requirements, including those for file naming. The PLOS ONE style templates can be found at 

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/file?id=wjVg/PLOSOne_formatting_sample_main_body.pdf and 

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/file?id=ba62/PLOSOne_formatting_sample_title_authors_affiliations.pdf

2. We suggest you thoroughly copyedit your manuscript for language usage, spelling, and grammar. If you do not know anyone who can help you do this, you may wish to consider employing a professional scientific editing service.  

Whilst you may use any professional scientific editing service of your choice, PLOS has partnered with both American Journal Experts (AJE) and Editage to provide discounted services to PLOS authors. Both organizations have experience helping authors meet PLOS guidelines and can provide language editing, translation, manuscript formatting, and figure formatting to ensure your manuscript meets our submission guidelines. To take advantage of our partnership with AJE, visit the AJE website (http://learn.aje.com/plos/) for a 15% discount off AJE services. To take advantage of our partnership with Editage, visit the Editage website (www.editage.com) and enter referral code PLOSEDIT for a 15% discount off Editage services.  If the PLOS editorial team finds any language issues in text that either AJE or Editage has edited, the service provider will re-edit the text for free.

Upon resubmission, please provide the following: 

● The name of the colleague or the details of the professional service that edited your manuscript

● A copy of your manuscript showing your changes by either highlighting them or using track changes (uploaded as a *supporting information* file)

● A clean copy of the edited manuscript (uploaded as the new *manuscript* file)

3. We note that the grant information you provided in the ‘Funding Information’ and ‘Financial Disclosure’ sections do not match. 

When you resubmit, please ensure that you provide the correct grant numbers for the awards you received for your study in the ‘Funding Information’ section.

4. Thank you for stating the following in the Acknowledgments Section of your manuscript: "Financial supports from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51904092), Key Scientific Research Project of Higher Education Institutions in Henan Province (Grant No. 24A440004), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Universities of Henan Province (NSFRF230403, NSFRF210454), Young backbone teachers funding program of Henan Polytechnic University (2022XQG-01), the research fund of Henan Key Laboratory for Green and Efficient Mining & Comprehensive Utilization of Mineral Resources (KCF2202) and the research fund of Jiaozuo Road Traffic and Transportation Science and Technology research center (JRTT2023004, JRTT2023010, JRTT2023011) are gratefully acknowledged."

We note that you have provided funding information that is not currently declared in your Funding Statement. However, funding information should not appear in the Acknowledgments section or other areas of your manuscript. We will only publish funding information present in the Funding Statement section of the online submission form.

Please remove any funding-related text from the manuscript and let us know how you would like to update your Funding Statement. Currently, your Funding Statement reads as follows: "The authors received no specific funding for this work."

Please include your amended statements within your cover letter; we will change the online submission form on your behalf.

5. We note that your Data Availability Statement is currently as follows: "ALL relevant data are within the manuscript and its Supporting Information".

Please confirm at this time whether or not your submission contains all raw data required to replicate the results of your study. Authors must share the “minimal data set” for their submission. PLOS defines the minimal data set to consist of the data required to replicate all study findings reported in the article, as well as related metadata and methods (https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/data-availability#loc-minimal-data-set-definition).

For example, authors should submit the following data:

- The values behind the means, standard deviations and other measures reported;

- The values used to build graphs;

- The points extracted from images for analysis.

Authors do not need to submit their entire data set if only a portion of the data was used in the reported study.

If your submission does not contain these data, please either upload them as Supporting Information files or deposit them to a stable, public repository and provide us with the relevant URLs, DOIs, or accession numbers. For a list of recommended repositories, please see https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/recommended-repositories.

If there are ethical or legal restrictions on sharing a de-identified data set, please explain them in detail (e.g., data contain potentially sensitive information, data are owned by a third-party organization, etc.) and who has imposed them (e.g., an ethics committee). Please also provide contact information for a data access committee, ethics committee, or other institutional body to which data requests may be sent. If data are owned by a third party, please indicate how others may request data access.

6. Please amend the manuscript submission data (via Edit Submission) to include authors Lei Zhou, Liangtao Deng, and Jiahao Wang.

7. Please include captions for your Supporting Information files at the end of your manuscript, and update any in-text citations to match accordingly. Please see our Supporting Information guidelines for more information: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/supporting-information.

[Note: HTML markup is below. Please do not edit.]

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Partly

**********

2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: Based on the Brazilian splitting experiment, this paper studies the effects of six different roughness on rock-concrete properties, analyzes the influence of interface roughness on the tensile strength, deformation, splitting energy rate and failure mode of rock-concrete composites. Although the test is simple, the analysis is acceptable. However, the manuscript has some problems and it would require some major revisions. The specific issues are as follows:

1、The writing of the “1 Introduction” lacks the reference of roughness to the characteristics of coal-rock combination and suggests the author consult relevant literature and supplement them in time.

2、“roughness” is an uncountable noun.

3、“The peak tensile strain is often smaller than that without serrations, indicating that the center has serrations” the relationship between “peek tensile strain” and “serrations” need to be further explanation.

4、I suggest the author should increase the basic mechanical parameters of rock and concrete and increase the integrity of the paper.

5、The author should be given the calculation formula of crack evolution parameters.

6、I suggest the author give the fitting formula of Fig.6.

Reviewer #2: I suggest to the Editor that the manuscript requests a “major revision.” The detailed review comments for improving the manuscript have been uploaded as an attachment. Please refer to the attachment to make revisions.

**********

6. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

**********

[NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.]

While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step.

Attachments
Attachment
Submitted filename: Review comments-PONE-D-23-40490.pdf
Revision 1

Reviewer 1

Based on the Brazilian splitting experiment, this paper studies the effects of six different roughness on rock-concrete properties, analyzes the influence of interface roughness on the tensile strength, deformation, splitting energy rate and failure mode of rock-concrete composites. Although the test is simple, the analysis is acceptable. However, the manuscript has some problems and it would require some major revisions.

Answer:

Thanks very much for your kind suggestion. We deeply appreciate the comments concerning the manuscript. Revisions in the text are shown using red highlight for additions, and blue highlight for grammatical checks.

Comment 1: The writing of the “1 Introduction” lacks the reference of roughness to the characteristics of coal-rock combination and suggests the author consult relevant literature and supplement them in time.

Answer: Revision at Page 2 Line 43~45.

Thanks very much for your kind suggestion. We have rewritten the abstract in the revised manuscript, giving a concise description of the paper and listing some new findings.

Comment 2: Please introduction the significance of the effect of rock-concrete failure to the tunnel engineering.

Answer: Revision at Page 2 Line 33~46; Page 3 Line 47~48.

Thank you for the reviewer’s comment. We have introduced the influence of rock-concrete failure to tunnel engineering in the introduction of the revised manuscript.

Comment 3: “The peak tensile strain is often smaller than that without serrations, indicating that the center has serrations” the relationship between “peek tensile strain” and “serrations” need to be further explanation.

Answer: Revision at Page 11 Line 207 ~ 210; Page 12 Line 211 ~ 219.

Thank you very much for your friendly advice. We have supplemented the relationship between “peek tensile strain” and “serrations” in the revised draft, and explained the reasons for this phenomenon.

Comment 4: I suggest the author should increase the basic mechanical parameters of rock and concrete and increase the integrity of the paper.

Answer: Revision at Page 10 Line 185~192; Page 11 Line 193~196.

We really appreciate the reviewer’s suggestion. We supplemented the Brazilian splitting data of sandstone and concrete in the revised manuscript.

Comment 5: The author should be given the calculation formula of crack evolution parameters.

Answer: Revision at Page 16 Line 303~305; Page 17 Line 306~327; Page 18 Line 328.

Thanks to the reviewer’s suggestion. We supplemented the calculation formula of crack propagation parameters in the revised manuscript.

Comment 6: I suggest the author give the fitting formula of Fig.6.

Answer: Revision at Page 19 Line 346~347.

Thank you for the reviewer’s advice. We supplemented the fitting formula of Fig.6 in the revised manuscript.

Reviewer 2

This paper (PONE-D-23-40490) explores the influence of roughness on the tensile

properties of rock-concrete composite disc specimens. The sinusoidal periodic variation

of crack-related parameters with roughness is an interesting observation. This paper

offers valuable insights for practical applications, especially in construction projects

involving rock-concrete interfaces. However, the experimental methods used in this

study were simplistic and lacked depth of research. I suggest to the Editor that the

manuscript requests a “major revision.” Some specific comments for improving the

manuscript are given as follows.

Answer:

Thanks very much for your kind suggestion. We have revised the manuscript according to each review comment. Revisions in the text are shown using red highlight for additions, and blue highlight for grammatical checks.

Comment 1: Introduction: The origin and significance of the Brazilian Splitting Test in the field of rock mechanics are considered common knowledge, requiring minimal elaboration. Considering this, the author is encouraged to supplement the introduction with content directly pertinent to the research focus of this manuscript. By providing additional context on the specific relevance of the research content, such as its implications in practical engineering applications, the introduction can be enriched to better engage the reader and underscore the importance of the investigation.

Answer: Revision at Page 2 Line 33~46; Page 3 Line 47~68; Page 4 Line 69~77.

Thanks very much for your kind suggestion. We have rewritten a new introduction, deleted the origin and significance of the Brazilian splitting test in the field of rock mechanics, and supplemented the relevant content related to the focus of this study.

Comment 2: As the author acknowledges in the Introduction, numerous scholars have employed advanced testing techniques, such as AE, DIC, and transparent materials, to observe the initiation and propagation of cracks. In contrast, this article does not leverage these sophisticated testing methods for supplementary investigation. Therefore, in comparison to existing research, what constitutes the innovative aspects of this article?

Answer:

Thanks to the reviewer’s suggestion. Unfortunately, our laboratory lacks precision instruments such as AE, DIC, and transparent materials. Therefore, in our tests, we cannot monitor the evolution of failure. In future research, we will seek the help of others to obtain more advanced equipment to monitor the failure process of the specimen and to analyze the failure characteristics of the specimen more accurately. The innovation of this paper is to use the method of artificial groove to make rock-concrete composite disc samples with different roughness, and to quantify the roughness value of the samples under different working conditions by sand filling method, so as to study the influence of roughness on the tensile properties of rock-concrete composite disc samples.

Comment 3: Sample making: Provide additional details on the specific methods employed for artificially grooving the specimens. This could include information on the tools, techniques, and parameters used in the grooving process. Suggest adding images or schematics that can illustrate the groove treatment process on the rock-concrete specimens. This can provide readers with a clearer understanding of the

experimental setup.

Answer: Revision at Page 5 Line 110~111; Page 6 Line 112~122; Page 8 Line 157~159; Page 9 Line 160; Page 9 Line 171~179.

Thank you for the reviewer’s advice. We do not have a detailed description of the specific methods of manual grooving samples. After verification with the sample processing party, we give a more detailed description of the tools, parameters and related technologies used in the grooving process. In the revised manuscript, we supplemented the process flow diagram of the grooving process and the related schematic diagrams of the grooving samples with different roughness, hoping to provide readers with a more concise test introduction and facilitate readers to quickly and clearly understand the experimental setup.

Comment 4: Splitting energy rate: The term "energy" mentioned by the author refers to what exactly? If it pertains to elastic strain energy, is the strain limited to axial strain εy alone, or does it also encompass horizontal strain εx? Kindly provide a more elaborate explanation of the concept of energy and the specific calculation methods.

Answer: Revision at Page 16 Line 303~305; Page 17 Line 306~327; Page 18 Line 328.

Thanks very much for your kind suggestion. We explain the energy in the newly revised manuscript, and explain the related concepts and specific calculation methods of energy in detail. The elastic strain energy designed and calculated in this paper is only related to the axial strain εy.

Comment 5: Crack evolution characteristics: The author's classification of the crack propagation process solely based on the stress-strain curve appears overly simplistic. If experimental conditions permit, it is recommended to consider employing techniques such as AE or DIC for supplementary investigation. This would add depth to the research results, enhancing both the reliability and comprehensiveness of the study.

Answer: Thanks to the reviewer’s suggestion. As mentioned in Answer 2, our laboratory lacks precision instruments such as AE, DIC, and transparent materials, so the content we discuss in this paper mainly focuses on the stress-strain curve of the sample. In future experiments, our research group will consider using more test instruments and better test conditions to do deeper research to improve the reliability and comprehensiveness of the research.

Attachments
Attachment
Submitted filename: Detailed Response to Reviewers202405.docx
Decision Letter - Xun Xi, Editor

Effects of different roughness on brazilian splitting characteristics of rock-concrete interface

PONE-D-23-40490R1

Dear Dr. Chen,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

An invoice will be generated when your article is formally accepted. Please note, if your institution has a publishing partnership with PLOS and your article meets the relevant criteria, all or part of your publication costs will be covered. Please make sure your user information is up-to-date by logging into Editorial Manager at Editorial Manager® and clicking the ‘Update My Information' link at the top of the page. If you have any questions relating to publication charges, please contact our Author Billing department directly at authorbilling@plos.org.

If your institution or institutions have a press office, please notify them about your upcoming paper to help maximize its impact. If they’ll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team as soon as possible -- no later than 48 hours after receiving the formal acceptance. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org.

Kind regards,

Xun Xi

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

**********

2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: The review comments have been responded to and revised, and this article can be considered for acceptance.

Reviewer #2: The revised version of this article has addressed the concerns raised in the previous review. The authors have meticulously incorporated the suggestions, resulting in a significantly improved manuscript. The manuscript is now suitable for publication.

**********

7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

**********

Formally Accepted
Acceptance Letter - Xun Xi, Editor

PONE-D-23-40490R1

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Chen,

I'm pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been deemed suitable for publication in PLOS ONE. Congratulations! Your manuscript is now being handed over to our production team.

At this stage, our production department will prepare your paper for publication. This includes ensuring the following:

* All references, tables, and figures are properly cited

* All relevant supporting information is included in the manuscript submission,

* There are no issues that prevent the paper from being properly typeset

If revisions are needed, the production department will contact you directly to resolve them. If no revisions are needed, you will receive an email when the publication date has been set. At this time, we do not offer pre-publication proofs to authors during production of the accepted work. Please keep in mind that we are working through a large volume of accepted articles, so please give us a few weeks to review your paper and let you know the next and final steps.

Lastly, if your institution or institutions have a press office, please let them know about your upcoming paper now to help maximize its impact. If they'll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team within the next 48 hours. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org.

If we can help with anything else, please email us at customercare@plos.org.

Thank you for submitting your work to PLOS ONE and supporting open access.

Kind regards,

PLOS ONE Editorial Office Staff

on behalf of

Dr. Xun Xi

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Open letter on the publication of peer review reports

PLOS recognizes the benefits of transparency in the peer review process. Therefore, we enable the publication of all of the content of peer review and author responses alongside final, published articles. Reviewers remain anonymous, unless they choose to reveal their names.

We encourage other journals to join us in this initiative. We hope that our action inspires the community, including researchers, research funders, and research institutions, to recognize the benefits of published peer review reports for all parts of the research system.

Learn more at ASAPbio .