The analysis of dowel and tie bars effects on curling up in concrete pavement slabs

The effects of dowels and tie bars on curling in concrete pavement slabs is still not clear in design. Therefore, a 3D finite element model (FEM) of the multi-slabs resting on elastic foundations is developed to investigate this effects, and the design plan of dowels and tie bars in FEM are determined according to cement concrete pavement design specification in China, and in FEM beam element is employed to simulate the dowels and tie bars. From the calculated results, the tie bars effects on slab curling is little, and dowels effects is very obvious at slab joints where the stress will increase and curling up will decrease, but for the whole slab the effects of dowels is not obvious. © 2009 ASCE.