Performance Study of Mechanical Coupler and Lap Splice of Rebar in Reinforced Concrete Structure using Finite Element Method

Abstract

The length of reinforcement bar is limited to facilitate fabrication, transportation, or storage capacity, and this limitation makes it impossible to provide full-length continuous rebar in most reinforced concrete structure. As a result, rebar splicing is an unavoidable, and it is done by various methods. In this research, lap and mechanical coupler splicing techniques were investigated. The use of lap splicing techniques leads to greater congestion of reinforcement bar within the concrete structure. Mechanical coupler splice is very useful in reducing rebar congestion. In this research, non-linear finite element analyses with ABAQUS software was used to investigate the performance of rebar splicing techniques. A tensile test simulation was conducted for a continuous and mechanical coupler spliced rebar along with the flexural performance of a simply supported reinforced concrete beam with and without spliced rebars. Using developed models, the effects of rebar diameter on yield and ultimate strength, the effects of rebar splice types and number of point loads on the beam's flexural strength and crack pattern were investigated. The results show that the yield stress increased by 2.41% and ultimate stress increased by 3.49% for continuous rebar, while the yield stress for mechanical coupler rebar increases by 5.2% and the ultimate stress increased by 2.65% as the diameter of rebar increases. Mechanical coupler spliced rebar has nearly the same ultimate and yield stress as continuous rebar. The ultimate load of the lap beam decreased by 17.12%, and the coupler beam increased by 3.47% relative to continuous rebar beam.