Effectiveness of Load Transfer in Jointed Reinforced Concrete Pavement

The load tiansfer due to the dowel bars in jointed reinforced concrete pavements (JRCP) or to the steel reinforcing in continuously reinforced concrete pavements (CRCP) has also the effect of reducing the stress on the edge of the load slab. Therefore, the calculation of the load transfer between contiguous slabs is a basic aspect in the design of concrete pavements. In this paper the load modification factot (SF) is defined as the ratio between the bending stress in the loaded jointed slab (cxl) and the stress in the single slab (as) subject to the same edge load. The pavement has been modelled by the Finite Element Method (FEM) for different dowel/concrete contact, slab thickness, subgrade reaction modulus, bar spacing and temperature gradients. A non-linear model was adopted to simulate the slab-subgrade contact and several computer finite element simulations were carried out. The result of the study is the development of a multiple regression model which computes the SF with respect to all the previous parameters. Therefore, once the slab geometry, the support and climatic conditions are defined, it is possible to compute the value of SF by the regression model and to carry out the structural design of the pavement with respect to the simple model of single slabs loaded at the edge.