Design Procedure and Ultimate Capacity of New Turnbuckle for Measuring Tensile Force

A turnbuckle is a device that is installed between tension wires or rods for the purpose of adjusting the tensile force and length of tension members. Tensile force can be adjusted by rotating the body of turnbuckle but the conventional turnbuckle is incapable of measuring tensile force without specific measurement equipment such as a load cell, accelerometer and data logger, etc. New turnbuckles have therefore been developed for adjustment and easy measurement of tensile force. In previous works, the newly developed turnbuckles have been tested and analyzed in order to establish their size, shape and measurable load capacity. The present study addresses the design process and ultimate capacities of new turnbuckles having measurable load capacities of 100, 200 and 300 kN. The ultimate load capacities are obtained via experimental investigation. For each turnbuckle the ultimate loads and the first yield loads are about 5 times and 1.5 times the service load, respectively.