Closing remarks

The side of the dowel bar does not take any shear force, thus it is suggested that a dowel bar with elliptical cross-section will provide more effective area for distribution of stress (Porter 2001). This has been schematically explained in Figure 22.

                                
                   Figure 22. Elliptical cross-section has more effective area for shear stress distribution (Porter 2001)

While designing the thickness of the concrete pavement, generally the stresses at edge, corner and interior are considered. However, the stresses at the edge of the transverse joint also need to checked, considering the situation when dowel bars fails to perform load transfer ( Porter and Guinn 2002 ).

Corrosion of the dowel bars, usage of fiber reinforced polymer dowel bars, estimation of modulus of dowel reaction, dowel-slab interaction and their fatigue (Porter and Guinn 2002) are some of the emerging issues which demand further research and understanding.