Originally, the idea for determining the elastic resistance of a steel dowel based on the stress layout was described by Lorenc in [5]. A stress plot at the dowel root is the result of the superimposition of two effects; one of them is the result of global internal forces acting on a beam, i.e. global bending moment and/or axial force, and the second is an effect of local longitudinal shearing forces. The first effect, the global one, results in normal stresses at a dowel root which are increased by the effect of the geometrical notch. The second effect, the local one, results in a stress plot in and around the steel dowel caused by contact pressure at the steel-concrete interface (the steel dowel is then bent and sheared). For SLS, reduced stresses are considered, and for FLS, the first principal stresses. The first analyses were based on test results and numerical investigations, both for the PZ composite dowel shape. The analytical approach was omitted, the reason being the complexity of the problem, because of dowel geometry and, mainly, steel-concrete contact effects. Mathematical equations were adopted to describe variable stress values along the edge of the steel dowel as a function of the distance measured from its root. This approach led to two equations being derived, one describing the stress state in the dowel depending on a global stress value in a beam (M + N) at the level of the dowel root and the distance from dowel root to point considered, and a second one describing the stress state in the dowel depending on a longitudinal shear force value and the distance from dowel root to point considered. Adding these two equations linearly produces the stress state along the dowel edge. Appropriate mathematical operations made it possible to find the maximum stress as a function of the internal forces (M, N, VL) and, furthermore, to create a dimensionless envelope of connector resistance, already including stress concentration factors. Knowing the normal stress value at the point of the dowel root (without taking into account a notch concentration factor) and the value of the longitudinal shearing force, it is possible to check whether the maximum stresses in the dowel considered exceed a permissible stress value, e.g. yield strength of steel. The envelope presented in Fig. 1 was initially calculated only for the case of global normal stresses having the same sign as the maximum stresses re-