Glass fiber-reinforced polymer dowels for concrete pavements

Corrosion of steel dowels in concrete pavements reduces their useful servic e life and creates considerable maintenance and repair expenditures for con crete pavements. Glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) dowel bars are a pos sible maintenance-free alternative that will potentially reduce the overall life cycle cost of pavements, especially in corrosive environments. This p aper describes the performance of GFRP dowel bars under static and cyclic l oads. Dowels were used for a slab/joint model rested under laboratory condi tions. The rest variables included two different base support levels and tw o GFRP dowel types in addition to standard epoxy-coated steel dowels. GFRP dowels with a 38 mm diameter were used in this study to replace the 32 mm d iameter epoxy-coated steel dowels. This paper also discusses the results of a field application in which three types of GFRP dowels were installed in a newt concrete pavement highway in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The field p erformance of doweled joints has been verified under dynamic load testing.