Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Dowel Strips for Longitudinal and Transverse Loading

A new field of application for dowel strips are orthotropic composite roadway slabs. In contrast to conventional composite steel bridge construction, the dowel strips create a two‐dimensional bond. As a result, they are not only exposed to longitudinal but also to transverse shear forces. Up to now, neither the load‐bearing capacity nor the load‐deformation behavior under transverse shear forces have been investigated. Furthermore, there are design related deviations from the current approval in form of a lower dowel distance. This paper presents two different types of push‐out tests, which provide new insights into small composite dowel strips under longitudinal and transverse loads. Based on these tests and numerical investigations, the effects of smaller dowel strips are analyzed and special features of the load transfer mechanism under transverse shear forces are highlighted. The investigations presented here were carried out as part of the AiF‐FOSTA research project P 1265 [1].