Study of dowel action in reinforced concrete beam by factorial design of experiment

The accurate prediction of the shear behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) beams faces the challenge of complex shear-transfer mechanism. Shear resistance by dowel action of reinforcing bars has not been explicitly resolved due to limited replicates and variation in experimental prediction. Therefore, the present experiment proposes 2k factorial design, augmented with central composite design predicting the significance of percentage flexural reinforcement, reinforcement diameter, compressive strength of concrete, and bottom clear cover on dowel action in RC beams. The Fisher test is used, establishing the significance of main factors and interaction effects. The nature of the variation of ultimate dowel force in terms of influencing factors has been accounted for, developing an empirical polynomial equation. It is shown that cover has a direct impact and other factors, along with cover, play interaction effect on dowel force. .