COMPONENT DOWEL-BAR MODEL FOR LOAD-TRANSFER SYSTEMS IN PCC PAVEMENTS

A component dowel-bar model has been developed to simulate the doweled joint in portland-cement-concrete (PCC) pavements. The model consists of two bending beams of finite length, embedded in concrete, connecte d by a shear-bending beam. The objective is to model the dowel-bar loa d-transfer mechanism in PCC pavements. The new model can appropriately consider the interaction between concrete and embedded dowels. The mo del allows a rigorous numerical analysis without an increased number o f unknowns. The model can be integrated into a finite-element program to predict the responses of the load transfer system, including distri butions of bending moment, shear force and bearing stress of each dowe l without using the assumption of effective length. A comparison betwe en experimental and analytical results has verified that the component model can be used to reasonably predict the responses of a dowel bar load transfer system.