Abstract: The dowel action of reinforcing steel bars crossing cracks is modeled for the finite element analysis of reinforced concrete. In the proposed model, the dowel forces and displacements are smeared over the element respectively in order to be consistent with the smeared crack and reinforcement models. The dowel action model is incorporated in a finite element procedure with displacement controlled iteration scheme and secant stiffness formulation, so as to deal with the post-peak behavior of reinforced concrete structures. The analytical results on deep beams agree closely with test data. It is concluded that the dowel action of reinforcing main bars has a significant contribution to the strength and ductility of shear critical members.