First, thank for you for giving me the chance to join the community.
My name is Dario, I am a PhD in Structural Engineering, and I am building in ATENA GiD a model of a Push-off specimen, used to develop the bond-slip relation for dowel stirrups located in the shear region plane. My ultimate goal is to predict the behavior of FRP dowels under a vertical (shear) load that creates slippage between a concrete bridge girder and a concrete deck cast at different times. However, in order to do that, I need to start understanding the phenomena using traditional carbon steel stirrups.
Nevertheless the literature is poor for such a topic, I have learned that a good way to replicate the dowel action is to use the "beam on elastic foundation" theory, hence to make advantage of Winkler springs with concentrated load at one end.
My question is: has the topic been somehow covered in the past by using ATENA GiD? Secondly, do you have any suggestions on how to approach the problem? May the "Interface" element be a better representation?
Thank you in advance,

Dario