Measuring the deflected shape of a dowel bar embedded in concrete

Conclusions

The instrumentation produced excellent data with regard to the small deflections of a dowel bar embedded in concrete. In this study, dowel load versus deflection characteristics were successfully measured for combinations of concrete strength, dowel diameter, and joint opening widths within the ranges of practical interest. The deflections of embedded dowels were found to be significantly affected by these variables for the ranges tested. As indicated by the experimental data, the prediction equation based on theory of a beam resting on an elastic foundation did not properly represent the dowel deflections due to the nonlinear nature of the physical system, even at relatively low levels of applied load. The instrumentation technique should have application for other problems where internal displacements of elements embedded in concrete are desired, such as dowel action in the shear of concrete beams.