Evaluating the Performance of Dowel in PCC Pavement of Roads using ABAQUS Finite Element Software

In Portland Cement Concrete (PCC) pavement of the roads, dowels bar transfers vehicle loading to the unloaded slab. Load Transfer Efficiency (LTE) is used to evaluate dowel bars in PCC pavement. This parameter is defined as the vertical displacement ratio of the loaded slab versus the unloaded slab. In this study, the impact of effective factors (friction coefficient between dowel and concrete slab, wheel loading, dowel diameter and dowel spacing) on load transfer efficiency was studied with modeling by using the ABAQUS finite element software. The verification process was presented to increase confidence in model results and the response data from the numerical simulation agrees well with analytical solution. The results show that with increasing the friction coefficient between slab and dowel, load transfer efficiency increases but the failure of concrete around dowel bars was found to initiate at the face of joint. Furthermore, if strains remain in elastic range, increasing in wheel loading magnitude does not lead to reduce load transfer efficiency but dowel diameter or its spacing have an important role on load transfer by dowels.