PRESTRESSED CONCRETE

basic concepts
CVEN4301 Advanced Concrete Structures
Lecture Outline

Prestressed Concrete General

Prestressed Concrete Beams
Methods of Prestressing
Stress Determination
Load Balancing
Textbook

UNSWBookshopor
http://www.pearson.com.au/9781486018970
Reinforced Concrete
Reinforced concrete is one of the most widely used
structural materials used in construction.
Due to the low tensile strength of concrete, however,
steel bars are added to carry ALL internal tensile
forces.

Consider a simple reinforced concrete beam:

Reinforced Concrete

The external loads cause tension in the bottom fibres

(when in positive bending) that may lead to cracking in
the concrete..
Most reinforced concrete beams are cracked at service
loads crack widths vary but are typically about 0.3 mm
wide.
Tensile reinforcement does not eliminate cracking and,
thus, does not prevent the loss of stiffness which
cracking causes.
History

EUGENE FREYSINNET a French engineer pioneered

the use of prestressed concrete in the 1930s.

YVES GUYON, a student of Freysinnet once

summarised the importance of the method saying:

There is probably no structural problem to

which prestress cannot provide a solution,
and often a revolutionary one.
Methods of Prestressing
Prestressing is applied to a concrete member by highly
tensioned steel reinforcement (wire, strand, or bar)
reacting on the concrete.

The high strength steel is most often tensioned using

hydraulic jacks.

The tensioning operation may occur before or after the

concrete is cast and results in two classification:

(i) PRE - TENSIONED

(ii) POST - TENSIONED
Prestressed Concrete - Introduction

Prestressed concrete is a particular form of

reinforced concrete
prestress imposes an initial load to the structural
element
reduces or removes tensile stresses
controls cracking
reduces deflections
results in lighter members and longer spans
increases economic range of reinforced concrete
uses high strength steel
steel is tensioned by hydraulic jacks between anchors
Pretensioned Concrete
Defined as members that where tensioning takes place
before the concrete is cast/set
Initially tensioned between fixed abutments and
anchored. Usually HS tendons. Concrete is cast and
cured then wires are released applying the prestress.
Prestress via bond between the steel and the concrete
developed over a transfer length
Usually precast and steam cured.
Often stresses within 24 hours of casting
Elastic shortening and early loading causes high creep
strains and loss of prestress
Pre-tensioned Concrete
PRECASTING PROCEDURE

Tendons stressed
1 between supports

Concrete cast
2 and cured

Tendons released
and prestress
3 transferred.

The three stages of pre-tensioning.

Post Tensioned Concrete

Tensioned in-situ (after the concrete sets)

Concrete cast around hollow ducts which are fixed

at desired points

tendon

grout Flat duct

Round duct
Post Tensioned Concrete
Tendons threaded through the ducts
When the concrete reaches a prescribed
strength the tendons are tensioned
tendons are stresses from one end OR both
ends simultaneously and then anchored
Concrete is stressed via bearing of the end
anchorages.
Ducts filled with grout under pressure -
tendons bonded to concrete
 Post-tensioning

1. Concrete hollow duct

cast and cured

uplift forces
TENSILE
FORCE
COMPRESSIVE
2. Tendons stressed FORCE
and prestress
transferred

live end dead end

3.Tendons anchored
and duct grouted

Three stages of post-tensioning.

Multistrand Systems
Slab Systems
Stressing
Stressing
Examples
Glenwood Canyon, Colorado Stadium Australia
Buildings and Bridges
Production testing
Jacking
50 m span segmental precast PC
bridge
UHPC Prestressed Girders
Prestressing Steel
o Steel
High strength wires
multi-wire strand
high strength alloy bars
o All prestressing steel is called tendons
o Wire - cold drawn 2 to 8 mm diameter. Surface is
indented or crimped eg. 7mm fp = 1700 MPa
o Strand - wires woven together 7-wire: 6 wires woven
into a helix around a 7th wire core
o High Strength Bar - cold worked alloy steel
Prestressing Steel
Modulus of Elasticity
Ep = 200 000 MPa wire
= 195 000 MPa strand
= 170 000 MPa alloy bars
Stress-Strain Curve
nonlinear
no well-defined yield use 0.1% proof stress
Relaxation
~ analogous to creep of steel under constant
deformation loss of tension in steel.
Example i

b
L

Calculate the maximum value for

Example ii

P Centroid P D

b
L

P induces uniform compression

Assuming linear-elastic behaviour
Sign convention

Youwillnotefromthepreviousexamplethatwehave
adoptedthesignconventionascompressionas
positiveandtensionasnegative.

Thisiscommonpracticeforconcretebutnot
uniformlyadopted.Manybookstaketensionas
positive.

Theimportantthingistonotethesignconvention
usedwhicheveryouadoptconsistently.
Example iii

P at an eccentricity of
e=D/6 (measured
e = D/6
from the uncracked
P P
centroid)
D

b
L
Tensile stress
balanced by prestress

P tension P

P P

concrete
Example iii Calculatew fornotensilestress

Eccentric prestress (e = D/6)

w
Pe Pe
D/6

P P
Prestress of P at centroid
Example iii Calculatew fornotensilestress

Eccentric prestress (e
(e ==D/6)
D/6)
w
Pe Pe

P P
Prestress of P + moment PD/6 applied at centroidal axis
Example iii

P e = D /6 P D

b
L
Example iv

P e P
For small :
D
e
b
L/2 L/2 L 2
kink at midspan

P P
P P

V
Example iv

P e P D

b
L/2 L/2
Example v: draped tendon

P P

L/2 L/2

PARABOLIC TENDON PROFILE

Example v: draped tendon

vertical
R distributed forces

P P

p - curvature
unit length
(very small length)

P cable forces

P
p R = P sin p
= P p
Example v: draped tendon

P e P D

b
x
L/2 L/2
Design

There are two common methods for the design of

prestressed beams:
Calculation of Elastic Stresses

The components of stress on a prestressed concrete

section caused by the prestress, the self-weight, and
the external loads are usually calculated using simple
beam theory and assuming linear elastic behaviour.

The properties of the gross-section are used, provided it is

uncracked.

If an elastic calculation indicates that cracking may occur at

service loads, a cracked section analysis is then necessary
(this will be considered later in the course).
 COMBINED LOAD
APPROACH
Cross section Elevation Elevation

e P
y P
M=Pe

Stresses due to prestress

e
y
COMBINED LOAD
APPROACH
LOAD BALANCING
APPROACH
Load Balancing

If w = wp LOAD BALANCING

A part or all of the load may be balanced. For example,

we may wish to balance the permanent components of
the service loads to remove the deflections due to
creep.