Experimental Study on Flexural Performance of lap-spliced and mechanical-spliced (clamp type) rebars in RC Beams

Abstract

Various methods can be employed to splice reinforcement bars, including lap splicing, welding, and mechanical splicing. Lap splicing is the most used method among these techniques. However, this study primarily focuses on evaluating the potential of mechanical splicing to replace the lap splice method. The investigation involved assessing the flexural performance of six RC beams in a series of laboratory experiments. These beams represented a control beam, an RC beam with lap-spliced rebars, and an RC beam with clamp-type mechanical spliced rebars. The laboratory testing results indicated that the RC beam with lap-spliced rebars had the highest load-bearing capacity, resulting in the highest nominal flexural moment (Mn). In contrast, the control beam demonstrated the highest deflection, signifying a greater level of ductility. However, RC beams with mechanical splices (clamp type), while not achieving the highest flexural moment and ductilities, are still competitive, as the experiment revealed that the difference is not significant. Consequently, it can be concluded that mechanical splicing has the potential to compete with or replace lap splicing in RC beams.