Dowel bars are arranged between two slabs of jointed plain concrete pavements to transfer load between them. The looseness of these dowel bars leads to the decrease of the load transfer efficiency (LTE). Meanwhile, repeated vehicle load can result in void near the joints. In this paper, the behaviors of concrete pavement under the effect of void size and joint stiffness were studied by using ABAQUS software. The FEA model was calibrated for different element parameters based on mesh convergence analysis and validated by comparison with previous studies. The voids beneath slabs were considered in this study, including the loaded slab and unloaded slab. The different effects of base course modulus on the stress of loaded slab are also analysed. It is concluded that the results show that the void size and joint stiffness affect the stress of the loaded plate. Smaller void size and larger joint stiffness will lead to the maximum stress located at the bottom of the loaded slab, and the void size has little effect on the stress of the loaded slab. Otherwise, the larger void size will cause larger stress. The effect of base modulus on stress is similar.

中文翻译：

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考虑板下缝空隙的混凝土路面力学行为LTE

销钉布置在两块连接的普通混凝土路面之间，以在它们之间转移载荷。这些销钉的松动导致载荷传递效率（LTE）的降低。同时，反复的车辆负载可能导致接头附近出现空隙。本文利用ABAQUS软件研究了空洞尺寸和接缝刚度对混凝土路面的影响。基于网格收敛分析，针对不同的元素参数对FEA模型进行了校准，并通过与先前研究的比较进行了验证。在这项研究中，考虑了平板下方的空隙，包括已加载的平板和未加载的平板。还分析了基层模量对受力平板应力的不同影响。结论是，结果表明空隙尺寸和接头刚度会影响加载板的应力。较小的空隙尺寸和较大的接头刚度将导致位于受力板底部的最大应力，而空隙尺寸对受力板的应力影响很小。否则，较大的空隙尺寸将导致较大的应力。基本模量对应力的影响是相似的。