*2.4. Testing Setup*

To obtain the strain variation of rebar, six strain gauges were arranged at each 1/6 of the lapped length, as shown in Figure 4d. Three displacement meters (i.e., SM1, SM2, and SM3) (Jiangsu Donghua Testing Technology Co., Ltd, Taizhou, China) for obtaining the displacements at the loading end, the anchorage end, and the specimen were also arranged, as shown in Figure 5.

**Figure 5.** Testing schematic.

The tensile testing of the short-lapped-rebar splices was performed using a steel frame loading rack (Beijing Tianyijiashi International Technology Co., Ltd, Beijing, China) with the maximum bearing capacity of 1000 kN, as shown in Figure 5. The loading rate for the rebar with 12 mm in diameter was 6 kN/min and that for the rebar with the diameter of 16 mm and 20 mm was 10 kN/min. To avoid the eccentricity, two steel rods were added at both sides of the steel frame loading rack.
