Newly Developed GFRP Dowel Bars for Jointed Plain Concrete Pavement

Corrosion of steel dowels in jointed plain concrete pavements (JPCP) reduces their effective service-life and creates considerable maintenance and repair expenditures. Glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) dowel bars are a non-corrodible and maintenance-free alternative that will potentially reduce the life-cycle cost of JPCP, especially in harsh environmental conditions. This paper describes the performance of the newly developed GFRP dowels under static loading and compares their behavior with that of the epoxy-coated steel dowels. GFRP and epoxy-coated steel dowels were used for jointed pavement prototypes (slab/joint) and were tested under laboratory conditions. The test prototypes measured 2440 mm-long × 610 mm-width × 254 mm-depth. The slabs were cast with a butted joint and each test prototype contained two dowel bars spaced at 306 mm. The test parameters included: (i) dowel bar type (GFRP and epoxy-coated steel), and (ii) dowel bar diameter (34.9 mm and 38.1 mm for GFRP and 28.6 mm for epoxy-coated steel). The test results revealed that both 34.9 and 38.1 mm GFRP dowels showed similar crack pattern and failure mode as epoxy-coated steel ones. Besides, both 34.9 and 38.1 mm GFRP dowels showed higher joint effectiveness than that of the 28.6 mm steel dowels.