The Dowel Group Action in Jointed Concrete Pavement

The wheel load transfer across a joints in concrete pavement is accomplished mainly by dowel bar system, dowels are installed in order to allow shear load transfer across slab joints. The dowel group action has been examined in this paper via from using of 3-D FE mode. Numerical model results are presented in four formats in this study, including shear force diagram, load transfer ratio by shear force, dowel shear force distribution and dowel shear ratio. The relationships between applied wheel load and dowel group action will be useful in the design and evaluation of dowel jointed concrete pavements.