• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.21-30
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• 2011

As well known, dowel bars are used to transfer traffic load acting on one edge to another edge of concrete slab in concrete pavement system. The dowel bars widely used in South Korea are round shape steel bar and they shows satisfactory performance under bending stress which is developed by repetitive traffic loading and environment loading. However, they are not invulnerable to erosion that may be caused by moisture from masonry joint or bottom of the pavement system. Especially, the erosion could rapidly progress with saline to prevent frost of snow in winter time. The problem under this circumstance is that the erosion not only drops strength of the steel dower bar but also comes with volume expansion of the steel dowel bar which can reduce load transferring efficiency of the steel dowel bar. To avoid this erosion problem in reasonable expenses, dowers bars with various materials are being developed. Fiber reinforced plastic(FRP) dower that is presented in this paper is suggested as an alternative of the steel dowel bar and it shows competitive resistance against erosion and tensile stress. The FRP dowel bar is developed in tube shape and is filled with high strength no shrinkage. Several slab thickness designs with the FRP dowel bars are performed by evaluating bearing stress between the dowel bar and concrete slab. To calculated the bearing stresses, theoretical formulation and finite element method(FEM) are utilized with material properties measured from laboratory tests. The results show that both FRP tube dowel bars with diameters of 32mm and 40mm satisfy bearing stress requirement for dowel bars. Also, with consideration that lean concrete is typical material to support concrete slab in South Korea, which means low load transfer efficiency and, therefore, low bearing stress, the FRP tube dowel bar can be used as a replacement of round shape steel bar.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.133-139
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• 2009

Joints on concrete road prevent failure and crack securing the moderate space when concrete slab expands and contracts as a function of varying temperature throughout all seasons. Filling joint sealants in joints can prevent the interruption of slab movement and failure due to the infiltration of alien substances, and also can prevent crack caused by freezing and thawing and Dowel bar corrosion resulted from water - rainfall and snowfall infiltration through the inside the pavement. They lead to the improvement of the commonality of road. This paper evaluates physical strength, weatherability and deicer resistance of a two-year aged sample from joint on concrete road and its virgin sample. It was found that there are significant differences in aspects of weatherability and adhesive force between the tested sample and silicon materials.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.229-239
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• 2008

This paper compares the load transfer efficiency between precast concrete pavement specimen and typical concrete pavement specimen by means of laboratory and field tests. An experimental method was developed to evaluate the load transfer efficiency of the dowel bars buried in the concrete pocket and grouted with cement mortar. The test results showed that the load transfer efficiency of the specimen for the dowel bars repaired with grout was equivalent to that of the control specimen. In addition, a series of FWD field tests were conducted on the precast pavement to evaluate the joint stiffness. The field test results revealed that the central deflection of the precast slab slightly increased but the load transfer efficiencies at the joints were almost the same as those in the typical concrete pavement slab.