Load Bearing Behaviour of Cast-in Shear Dowels

Dowel bars are often used to transfer shear forces across expansion joints and also to create shear key connections, for example in precast concrete buildings, fixed on both sides into the adjacent reinforced concrete elements. This article gives an overview of the current state of the technology.

Recent shear tests performed with cast-in rebars, away from the edge, are presented and analysed. A design formula is derived to determine the transverse shear capacity of dowels cast into concrete, based on a modified support modulus method and taking into consideration the concrete yielding, and this is compared with existing theoretical approaches and experimental results.