Mechanical behavior of corrugated grouted sleeve splice for precast concrete structures under cyclic loading

To improve the splicing behavior of steel rebars in precast structures, this paper presents a novel corrugated grouted sleeve (CGS) fabricated at low cost from a rolling seamless pipe. To investigate the connection characteristics of splicing rebars in prefabricated structures under lateral loads, 18 specimens of 45# seamless pipe with various parameters were prepared and tested under cyclic loading. In general, the proposed connector system achieved high performance of the splicing rebars between precast components, ensuring sufficient integrity of the precast construction. Because the corrugated configuration provides sufficient anchoring strength for the steel rebars, the typical failure modes of the specimens under cyclic loading were steel rebar fractures, as desired. Moreover, cracks in the mortar were almost absent except at the ends, confirming higher performance than traditional sleeves. Finally, a method is proposed for capturing the confinement stress in the CGS for splicing steel rebars. The model results generally agreed with the test results. Therefore, it is believed that the proposed CGS system can be a alternative for splicing rebars in the prefabricated constructions.