• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2024.07a
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• pp.10-17
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• 2024

Rebar lap splice is the most commonly used at construction sites because it does not require any additional equipment or labor's skills. Rebar lap splice has high construction costs because they require approximately 15% more rebar due to the overlap length. To solve these problems of rebar lap splice, mechanical rebar coupler was developed. Mechanical rebar coupler has a strong bonding force, helping to keep the structure safe even during earthquakes. In addition, mechanical rebar coupler is suitable for modular construction and easy to construct, so the construction period can be shortened. And mechanical rebar coupler can reduce the amount of rebar compared to other joint methods, thereby reducing CO2 emissions. Despite these advantages, the use of mechanical rebar couplers is not widespread except in some developed countries. This is because the types and characteristics of mechanical rebar couplers vary widely, making it difficult for construction engineers to choose. Existing research has only been conducted on mechanical rebar couplers in terms of structural experiments. And there is no research that classifies and analyzes the shapes of rebars. Hence, it should be analyzed the characteristics of mechanical rebar couplers in terms of construction methods for each shape. Therefore, the objective of this study is a basic study on comparative analysis of the characteristics and performance of different types of mechanical rebar coupler for sustainable built environment. The most efficient mechanical rebar coupler was derived for each construction site environment.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.40-51
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• 2015

In reinforced concrete structure, rebar connection method should be considered because of its structural role to resist the tensile stress and its structural load transmission with concrete in the concrete structure. Lapped splice and mechanical sleeve type connector have been traditionally used to connect rebar in the concrete structures. In this study, to examine the mechanical and failure behaviors of rebar bar connected by taper type coupler in the concrete member depending on connection type and condition, tensile tests of steel rebar with taper type coupler and flexible loading tests of concrete beams were conducted. Its tensile strength and flexible strength of the rebar connected by taper type coupler were compared and evaluated by mechanical behaviors of rebar. From this study, steel rebar connected by taper type coupler showed it has similar mechanical performance comparing with unconnected rebar, thus taper type coupler can be used in the rebar fabrication of reinforced concrete structure.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.169-170
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• 2011

In the connection of green frame, the bottom rebar of the precast concrete beam needs joint or anchorage to ensure structural integrity. However, given the characteristics of composite precast concrete joint, enough length over which rebar can be anchored or lap-spliced is not secured. In addition, due to issues with constructability, cost or quality, it is difficult to apply welding or mechanical connection techniques. Therefore, this study analyze the requirement for a bolt-type rebar coupler as a solution for the coupling issue between the lower rebars of green frame beam. The requirement for bolt-type rebar coupler proposed herein will provide basic data for development studies of the rebar coupler.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.87-93
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• 2014

A tightened coupler with two way-threading is suggested to overcome the previous one-way threaded coupler. The experiment and a mock-up test were conducted to analyze the constructability of the suggested coupler. The aim of the mock-up test was to assemble the suggested coupler in horizontal rebar of mat footing and vertical rebar of semi-fabricated column bars. The method using the suggested coupler in semi-fabricated column bars is developed by analyzing the problem of fabricated column bars using the one-way threaded coupler. The result of the mock-up test showed that the time required to assemble the suggested coupler in the horizontal bars is shorter than it is for the one-way threaded coupler. In addition, the method using the suggested coupler in semi-fabricated column bars has advantages such as lower working loads, supporting safe work and strongly tightening the rebar. From these results, it is revealed that the suggested coupler is adequate to use in rebar work in terms of cost, quality and time.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.321-337
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• 2020

Contemporary design and construction of steel-concrete composite structures employs the use of prefabricated concrete elements and demountable shear connectors in order to reduce the construction time and costs and enable dismantling of elements for their potential reuse at the end of life of buildings. Bolted shear connector with mechanical coupler is presented in this paper. The connector is assembled from mechanical coupler and rebar anchor, embedded in concrete, and steel bolt, used for connecting steel to concrete members. The behaviour and ultimate resistance of bolted connector with mechanical coupler in wide and narrow members were analysed based on push-out tests and FE analyses conducted in Abaqus software, with focus on concrete edge breakout and bolt shear failure modes. The effect of concrete strength, concrete edge distance and diameter and strength of bolts on failure modes and shear resistance was analysed. It was demonstrated that premature failure by breakout of concrete edge occurs when connectors are located 100 mm or closer from the edge in low-strength and normal-strength reinforced concrete. Furthermore, the paper presents a relatively simple model for hand calculation of concrete edge breakout resistance when bolted connectors with mechanical coupler are used. The model is based on the modification of prediction model used for cast-in and post-installed anchors loaded parallel to the edge, by implementing equivalent influence length of connector with variable diameter. Good agreement with test and FE results was obtained, thus confirming the validity of the proposed method.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2002.11a
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• pp.37-41
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• 2002

Lap splice is used in building construction up to recently. As buildings become higher and larger, the use of high tensile bar is increasing due to increasing in the use of high compression concrete. However the using of high tensile bar in lap splice causes eccentricity and difficulty in placing of concrete inside the form, therefore not allowing enough intervening material. Various mechanical connection are being developed but the coupler of today needs either a secondary intervening material or secondary processing that consumes much time. Therefore a coupler, needing neither a secondary intervening material nor secondary processing, was made in this study which lead to following results. (1) Breaking occurred in all experimented rebar. (2) Acquirement of tension exceeding the standard requirement. (3) Acquirement of elongation percentage within the standard requirement.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.11-19
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• 2022

In this study, in order to improve the splice performance of mechanical couplers, two new mechanical couplers with different connection modes were developed with rebar(SD400). The stress analysis of mechanical couplers with two different connection modes was carried out. Uniaxial tensile tests were carried out with type of steel, connection mode and the slope length of internal fastener as variables to analyze the influence on the maximum tensile strength. Building upon this previous work, the specimens that met the code in uniaxial tensile test were fabricated and static loading test and cyclic loading test were performed on the basis of Korean code(KS D 0249). The results of this research are as follows; (1) The tensile strength of steel and the slope length of internal fasteners have a certain influence on the maximum tensile strength. (2) The connection mode has some influence on the stiffness, slip and stiffness reduction rate of the connecting rebars. The results verify the feasibility of the proposed enhanced mechanical coupler in the field.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.257-272
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• 2018

The research of shear connectors composed from mechanical couplers with rebar anchors, embedded in concrete, and steel bolts, as a mean of shear transfer in composite connections is presented in the paper. Specific issues related to this type of connections are local concrete pressure in the connector vicinity as well as the shear flow along the connector axis. The experimental research included 18 specimens, arranged in 5 series. Nonlinear numerical analyses using Abaqus software was conducted on corresponding FE models. Different failure modes were analysed, with emphasis on concrete edge failure and bolt shear failure. The influence of key parameters on the behaviour of shear connector was examined: (1) concrete compression strength, (2) bolt tensile strength and diameter and (3) concrete edge distance. It is concluded that bolted shear connectors with mechanical couplers have sufficient capacity to be used as shear connectors in composite structures and that their behaviour is similar to the behaviour of post installed anchors as well as other types of connectors anchored without the head.