Dowel bars in jointed plain concrete pavement (JPCP) have the important function of transferring wheel loads from one slab to the other, hence ensuring that the deflections on each side of the joint are kept almost equal. As well, the dowels should not impede the concrete pavement movements due to environmental effects (temperature and moisture). Dowel bar misalignment, attributed to deficient construction practice, is a major cause of joint distress or faulting by inhibiting the free movement of the slab at the joint. To prevent these issues, tolerance guidelines on misalignment levels are implemented by transportation agencies. Review of previous studies indicate that many researchers analysed the effects of dowel bar misalignment on pavement behaviour using a pull-out test, that is a forcebased opening of the joint. These approaches neglect that joints movements in the field are strain-governed by non-linear temperature and shrinkage actions, leading to combined axial movements and curling of the slab. In this study, the fundamental dowel bar behaviour under shrinkage and thermal loading was determined through detailed 3D finite element modelling (3D-FEM). To that end, models of dowel jointed concrete slabs were developed and subjected to realistic non-linear profiles of shrinkage and thermal strains. Studies were carried out on a single-bar model, taking into account bar-concrete friction and plastic concrete behaviour. The parameters that were investigated included different configurations and levels of bar misalignment and different friction coefficients between the steel and the concrete, simulating the use of bond-breakers. To interpret the results from the numerical analysis, criteria for concrete damage were developed and used in parallel with measures of joint load transfer efficiency; these were obtained by examining the response of the slab under a Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD) drop at the joint. The results were verified by comparing the outputs of a model consisting of one half of a slab to published data. The analysis of the models revealead that none of the models showed signs of significant damage after the application of shrinkage and two thermal cycles. Analyses with up to ten thermal cycles did not indicate progressive accumulation of damage, suggesting that for the chosen parameters there is no the concrete around the dowel bar will not fail. Models with bars placed higher in the slab and bars with angular misalignment exhibited more damage than the non-misaligned models without reaching the damage criteria used in this study. The models did not exhibit the amount of damage reported in the studies on dowel bar misalignment having used pull-out tests. It was found that no significant difference existed between uncoated and coated dowel bars models results with regards to concrete damage at the joint. However, a high coefficient of friction between the dowel and the concrete, simulating dowel bar corrosion, proved to be the most detrimental to joint integrity. All of the models performed very well with respect to joint load transfer efficiency, suggesting that the plastic strains in the concrete around the dowel did not have a significant impact on joint performance for the realistic range of parameters investigated.

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Trä är ett förnybart material till skillnad mot många andra byggnadsmaterial. Andelen trä inom byggnadsindustrin kan ökas genom att använda trädymlingsförband som ett substitut till skruvar och spikar. Skruvar och spikar tillverkas av metaller, vilka inte är förnybara material. Tillverkningsprocessen av metallbaserade material är mer energikrävande än den för trämaterial och har därför en större inverkan på vår miljö.Syftet med studien var att undersöka vidhäftningskapaciteten hos trädymlingsförband, olimmade och limmade av träslagen bok och furu. Fastsättningen av de olimmade trädymlingarna gjordes med insvällning. Insvällning innebar i studien att trädymlingarna först torkades, vartefter de placerades i en regel i inomhusklimat. Trädymlingarna strävade därefter att uppnå fuktkvotsjämvikt vilket medförde svällning. Vidhäftningskapaciteten för trädymlingsförband bör kunna konkurrera med utdragskapaciteten för till exempel spik för att vara praktiskt användbart.Trycktester har genomförts i laborationssalen i hus 45 på Högskolan i Gävle för att fastställa trädymlingarnas kraftupptagningsförmåga. Trycktesterna genomfördes i en drag- och tryckmaskin av modellen Shimadzu AG-X. Resultaten av testerna har sedan jämförts med den teoretiska utdragskapaciteten för spik. Karakteristiska hållfasthetsvärden har beräknats utifrån trycktestsresultaten.Resultatet av studien visar att endast de limmade trädymlingarna kan konkurrera med utdragskapaciteten hos spik. Limmade trädymlingar kan därför vara ett substitut till spik. Karakteristiska hållfasthetsvärden för limmad bok och limmad furu är 5,2 kN respektive 4,3 kN. / Wood is a renewable material, unlike many other building materials. The amount of wood used in the construction industry can be increased by using wooden dowels as a substitute for screws and nails. Screws and nails are made of metals, which are non-renewable materials. The manufacturing process of metal-based materials is more energy consuming than it is for wooden materials and therefore it has a greater impact on our global environment.The purpose of this study was to investigate the adhesion capacity of wooden dowel-joints, non-glued and glued made out of beech and pine. The attachment of the non-glued wooden dowels was achieved by swelling of the wood. Swelling was achieved by first drying the wooden dowels in an oven and then letting them acclimatize with the surrounding materials and the relative air humidity. The adhesion capacity of the wooden dowels should be able to compete with the withdrawal strength of nails to be practically useful.Tensile strength tests have been carried out in the laboratory in house 45 at the University of Gavle to determine the adhesion capacity of wooden dowel-joints. The tensile strength tests were performed with a Shimadzu AG-X machine. The results of the tests have been compared with the theoretical withdrawal strength for nails. Characteristic strength values have also been calculated from the tensile strength test results for the wooden dowels.The results of the study shows that only the glued wooden dowels can compete with the withdrawal strength of nails. Glued wooden dowels can therefore be a substitute for screws and nails. The calculated characteristic values for glued beech-dowels and glued pine-dowels are 5,2 kN respectively 4,3 kN.

Caribbean-style hybrid concrete-masonry structures consist of a reinforced concrete frame with partially grouted and reinforced infill masonry walls. The infill walls are typically connected to the RC frame with cast-in-place dowel reinforcement along one or more edges of the wall. There is limited guidance in masonry codes to design these types of structures, and their seismic performance has not been characterized with experimental tests. In this work, an experimental program characterized the seismic behavior of hybrid concrete-masonry frames and showed they do not exhibit the typical strut mechanism observed in unreinforced masonry infill structures. In addition, a detailed finite element modeling scheme and calibration methodology was developed for modeling partially grouted masonry. This model includes a novel calibration method to account for the difference in the shear and tensile behavior of bed joints with grouted and ungrouted cells, and a method to account for the contribution of vertical reinforcement to the shear capacity of the bed joints with grouted cells. Finally, simplified models were proposed for use in engineering design. A modification of the TMS 402 strut model for hybrid concrete-masonry was suggested to incorporate the effects of the masonry infill and connections in large models.

Glued connections are relatively new in structural timber engineering. They are expected to show high connection stiffness as well as a high connection strength compared to mechanical connections e.g. dowel‐type connections.The main aim of this thesis is to characterize the behavior of glued timber connections under pure tension by conducting experiments as well as numerical simulations. Hereby the influence of different parameters is studied such as the geometry (bond-line length and thickness) and the material properties (e.g. adhesives of highly diverse stiffness). Additionally, reference tests on a dowel-type connection are made. The purpose is to see the differences between dowelled and glued connections and to see if there are some advantages in using glued timber connections (the base geometry was chosen acc. to Eurocode 5).Finite element models were created in the software ABAQUS. The models were used to predict the connection stiffness and compare this to the experimental results. In addition, parametric studies were performed on e.g. overlapping lengths. The comparison between experiments and simulations showed good agreement.It was found that glued connections with the adhesives SikaPower-4720 and SikaFast-5215 NT (an epoxy and an acrylate, respectively) had higher stiffness than the dowel connections, whereas connections with the silicone adhesive SikaSil SG-500 had a lower stiffness. A general conclusion drawn from this work is that the glued timber connections simulated in this project should also be suitable for application to complex connections and situations involving other loading situations than pure tension.

The use of fiber reinforced polymers (FRP's) for structural repair or retrofit has increased significantly in the last decade, with adoption for civil infrastructure occurring only in the last 20 years. These products are most often used to increase the capacity of damaged or deteriorated structures. Much research has been performed in the arena of testing of various FRP's bonded to both concrete and masonry substrates, the majority of which focusing on three areas; flexural strengthening, in-plane shear strengthening, and mechanical anchoring. Anchorage is commonly the limiting factor in the application of FRP's, due to the inability of the edge of the polymer matrix to reliably extend beyond a point of zero-interfacial stress. Where interfacial stresses exist and the FRP is terminated localized disbondment often occurs, these localized failures then propagate across the entire bond of the structural system. Various mechanical termination details have been tested to mitigate the potential failure modes near the ends of the fabric. There, however, has been very limited research performed on the behavior of dowels which are installed parallel to the FRP fabric and splayed onto the FRP fabric matrix. In this research the mechanical properties of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) dowels with a parallel orientation to uniaxial carbon fabric are experimentally tested to determine the tensile capacity of "dowel to splay" CFRP connections and to discover any dominant failure modes.

Dowel-type steel to timber connections are commonly used in timber structure. The load carrying capacity and the stress distribution within the connection area are complicated and the failure behavior of a connection depends on many parameters. The main purpose of this thesis was to verify, using the data obtained from previous experiments, the conventional design method of European Code 5(EC5) (hand calculation) for dowel type joints subjected to pure bending moment and other alternative design methods based on the finite element method (FEM) including the use of the mean stress approach and the extended finite element method (XFEM). Finite element models were created in the software ABAQUS. The models were then used to predict the load bearing capacity and compare this to the experimental results. In addition parametric studies were performed with modifications of material properties and other parameters. The closest prediction in relation to the test results was obtained using XFEM where the predicted capacity was 3.82% larger than the experimental result. An extension of the mean stress method going from a 2D-formulation to a 3D-formulation was verified as well. A general conclusion drawn from this work is that the numerical modelling approaches used should also be suitable for application to complex connections and situations involving other loading situations than pure tension.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Civil Engineering / Hayder A. Rasheed / This study is conducted because of the lack of an existing theory to accurately predict the diagonal tension cracking in shallow reinforced concrete beams. A rational approach is followed to numerically derive the shear stress profile across the depth of the beam in cracked beams based on the smeared crack approach. Furthermore, the determined shear stress distribution coupled with the normal axial stress distribution are used to predict the principal stress variation across the depth and along the shear span using standard Mohr’s circle. Following a biaxial stress cracking criterion, the likely diagonal tension cracks along their orientation profile are predicted. Furthermore, this study is conducted to provide a mechanics-based understanding of the shear stress distribution in cracked reinforced concrete. This approach utilizes the transversal shear differential equation to evaluate the shear stress at any given depth by the variation of the axial stress distribution within an infinitesimal beam segment at that depth. In addition, this study presents a more accurate representation of the change in the strain profile parameters with respect to the sectional applied moment. Furthermore, the dowel action effect is derived to illustrate its significance on the shear stress distribution at various stages of loading.

The primary goals of this project were to examine the amount of lateral force resisted by a single-bay mortise-tenon connected timber moment frame, and to introduce ductile behavior into the mortise-tenon connections by adding a steel sleeve around a traditional wood peg. This research aimed to provide proof that traditional timber frames are capable of ductile racking while reliably complying with ASCE 7-10 building code drift speci! cations, implying an increase in the ASCE 7-10 ductility factor (R) for wood frames when used as lateral force resisting elements. A secondary goal was to promote traditional heavy timber framing as a main structural system. Modern structural framing is dominated by light-wood, steel, and concrete framing. The exploration in this project aspires to demonstrate that heavy timber frames can achieve comparable lateral performance and frame behavior to other current lateral systems, reassuring the reliability of traditional timber frames.

This study was performed to investigate how pressure, glue amount, dowel penetration depth and wood grain orientation affect direct withdrawal resistances of dowel pin joints both experimentally and numerically, and develop FE (finite element) models to simulate tensile strength, contact pressure, and shear stress occurred in dowel pin joints. Results indicated that the direct withdrawal resistance load of a dowel pin joints can be predicted based on knowing the glue bonding shear strength between dowel and joint member materials and the pressure between the contact surfaces of the dowel and hole of a connected joint member. The FE contact element model developed in this study was verified as an effective tool to analyze and predict the pressure between the contact surface of dowel and hole of a dowel-pin joint.