ki [echnical No Dr. Bijan 0. Aalami, Eiltor For Professionals Engaged in Poi rnsioning Design September 1994 Unbonded and Bonded Post:Tensioning Systems in Building Construction A Design and Performance Review By Bijan O. Aalami' 1. INTRODUCTION AND SCOPE, ‘The post-tensioning systems commonly used in building and bridge construction are grouped into two principal categories. These are the ‘unbonded and the bonded systems. ‘The distinguishing characteristic of an unbonded tendon is that, by design, it does not form a bond along its length with the concrete. ‘Unbonded tendons are generally made of single strand high strength steel, covered with a comosion inhibiting coating and encased in a plastic sheathing (Figure 1), The force in the stressed tendon is trans- ferred to the concrete primarily by the anchors provided at its ends Variations in force along the tendon is effected by the friction between the strand and the tendon profil in the concrete member Since the foree in an unbonded tendon is transfered primarily by the anchors a its ends, the long-term integrity of anchors throughout the service life of an unbonded tendon become crucial PLASTIC SHEATHING — | | | = - | 3 gt | RE 33 | ESOX | consosne stra INHEITING COATING NOTE: NOMINAL DIAMETER CROSS-SECTION AND DIMENSIONS OF 1/2" (12.7 mm) 7-WIRE UNBONDED TENDON FIGURE 1 ‘The function ofthe plastic sheathing is, () to act as a bond breaker; Gi) to provide protection against damage by mechanical handling, and (i) to form a barrier against intrusion of moisture and chemicals. ‘The strand coating, commonly referred to as grease, (i) reduces ftic- tion between the strand and the plastic sheathing, and (ji) provides added protection against corrosion. Unbonded tendons are typically employed as monostrands, with each tendon having its dedicated end anchors. Also, tendons are stressed individually. Recently however, unbonded tendons consisting of groups of two, or more strands, each wrapped individually, but encased in a tough group sheathing have been introduced into the market in Europe and overseas Monostrand unbonded tendons have been in use inthe United States since the late 1950s, The application has been primarily in building construction. A short history of development of unbonded tendons is, given in (Aalami 19906]. In some literature, the unbonded tendons are referred to as debonded tendons. The characteristic feature of a bonded tendon is that, by design, the tendon forms a continuous bond along its length with the concrete sur- rounding it, The bond is achieved through a cementitious matrix, ‘which surrounds the strands, commonly referred to as grout, It acts with the duct which is encased in the concrete member to complete the bond path between the prestressing strands and the concrete mem- bet, After stressing of a tendon, the grout is injected into the void of the tendon duct which houses the pestressing strands (Figure 2). ‘When the grout hardens, through its bond to the strand, it locks the ‘movement ofthe strand within the duct to that of the conerete su rounding it. Hence, the force in a bonded strand becomes 2 function of the deformation ofthe concrete surrounding it. Figure 2 shows two examples from the many variations of bonded tendons. The flat duct, tendon shown is for use in thin members, such as slabs, It houses up to either 4 or 5 strands placed side by side, The strands generally share a common anchor piece at each end, but are stressed and locked off individually. Corrugated, or smooth metal duets, as well a corra- gated plastic ducts are the materials of choice. Use ofthe flat plastic corrugated duct is mote common in the US, whereas elsewhere, flat ‘metal docts are more widely used. The larger round ducts are for application in beams and deep members. The strands in these are stressed and locked off simultaneously using a specially designed ‘multistrand stressing jack. "Professor of Civil Easnearing a San Fracico State Universiy; Chair, Pst ‘Teasionng Insite Techical Bou: Principal, Bijan, Fran & Assets Te, 1735 Woodside Ra, Redwood Cry C3 6eco Ta 07e"2 mm) p99 21 mn INSIDE OIA) axe" |) [ ‘ 7 L ose mm |] oa |) ae" | 1 wean | 33a cant ie a B SECTION ELEVATION (a) 4-STRAND PLASTIC FLAT CORRUGATED DUCT | V2" 027 mm) STRAND 73 a (b} STRAND POSITION AT HIGH POINT OF A 12 - 1/2" STRAND CIRCULAR METAL DUCT A BONDED SYSTEM TENDON DETAIL FOR BEAMS AND SLABS FIGURE2 In this system, the function of the grout i: (i) to provide a continu- ‘ous bond between the strand and the duct, (i) to increase protection against corrosion by acting as a physical barier to moisture penetra- tion, and (ii) through its alkalinity, provide an environment non-con- ducive for corrosion . The function of the duct is: () to maintain a voided path for the strands in the concrete member during construc- tion, (i) to transfer the bond between the grout within the duct and the concrete surrounding, and (it) to act as additional protection against penetration of moisture and chemicals into the interior of the duct. The principal function of the anchor assemblies atthe ends is to hold the forces generated in the tendon at stressing, until the grout is ‘introduced, hardened and cured. Bonded tendons are generally multi- strands. Tendons of up to 50 strands in one duct are not uncommon, ‘Traditionally the principal application of bonded tendons has been in bridge construction. Tnreceat years, there has been a growing tendency inthe use of external tendons in new bridge constraction, 2s well asin the retrofit of build- ings. Many designers and investigators regard extemal tendons as a form of unbonded tendon constuction, While admiting their likeness, this Technical Note does not adress their application. The focus ofthis ‘Technical Note is on tendons which are used in building constuction, and which are contained within the body of the structural member they press, In its infancy, and throughout later development, due to lack of Iknowledge, absence or inadequacy of relevant specifications and codes, and possibly shortsightedness or aggressive entrepreneur- MM Post-TENSIONING INSTITUTE ship, unbonded post-tensioning systems, which today are viewed as systems with inherent flaws in their durability performance, were used, These problems are now well recognized and have been effec- tively addressed, Today, through a full understanding of the strue- tural behavior, availability of strong analytical tools, matured speci- fications and codes (PTI 1993, ACI 1992, 1989}, refined construc- tion techniques [PTT 1994], improved materials and hardware, own- ers and engineers can fully realise the advantages of prestessing in their building projects. This Technical Note examines the features and performance of the unbonded and the bonded systems - as they are available today. It provides a comparative review of the merits of the two systems Let it be clear at the outset, both systems if designed, detailed and constructed according to current specifications and good practice, will provide durable structures meeting code intended serviceability and strength requirements. Or, if need be, both systems are capable to reach beyond the minimums stipulated in codes and produce a user-defined level of performance, in particular with respect to dura- bility. The merits of each, and the selection of a system depends on the technology, the skilled labor and hardware readily available to the supplier, as well as the economics of construction in the local market area, None is blessed tobe categorically supesior tothe other. ‘The following review concludes with a numerical design example, siving the material quantities which are needed fora frame of atypi- cal parking structure, 2- ANALYSIS, DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION 21 Analysis Analysis isthe computation of actions (moments, shears, and forces) and deformations in the prestressed structure under applied loading. Apart from losses in prestressing, which are somewhat different in nature and magninude, the analysis procedure forthe two systems is essentially the same, ‘The loss in prestressing force due to friction is higher in short and heavily profiled bonded tendons due to higher friction between the strand and its housing, For seating loss (wedge draw-in), and elastic shortening, the losses are the same for both systems. The long-term stress losses due to creep and shrinkage of concrete, and the relax- ation in strand are different. For bonded tendons, these are subject to the local strain of concrete adjacent to the tendon, whereas for tunbonded tendons these are taken to depend on the average precom- pression inthe prestressed! member, Consider the three span beam of the structure in Fig. 3. Fora com- parison of tendon effectiveness, assume that both tendons have the same profile (Fig. 5, case c), and that all other conditions remain the same, as deseribed inthe design example in section 4, The in-service and strength limit state stresses for tendons of each system are calcu lated and summarized in Table 1 for competison. ‘To simplify the comparison, the stresses are expressed as ratios of the average long-term stress in the unbonded tendon (last row of the table). Ths value forthe parameters of the design example is 181.70el ‘o a | 19.20 m r eam f 820m | l ]| | j | i> | Csr a ae NOTE: FLOOR TO FLOOR HEIGHT 100" (2048 mi FOR 36° (24 mm) BEAM 9-6" 2896 m) FOR 20" (762 mm) BEAM (a) ELEVATION 148? (3759 mm EFFECTIVE WIDTH | Ps —— ° (40 mm 36 Hm) OR 8 02 40 30°82 mn} a 6 an (b) BEAM SECTION (TRIBUTARY 18'-6° (5.639 mi) GEOMETRY OF FLOOR SYSTEM FIGURE 3 ksi (1.25 MPa). Its by coincidence that the in-service stresses over the second support (row 1 ofthe table) match the respective average stresses in the tendon. Due to the larger angular coefficient of fric- tion, itis oftentimes believed that the immediate stress losses in bonded tendons are higher than a corresponding unbonded tendon, This perception is generally aot valid for tendons with effective stressing lengths longer then approximately 80 ft or more (approx. 25, 1m). The high coefficient of wobble friction of the unbonded tendons soon wipes out the low friction advantage gained over bonded ten- dons for short stressing lengths. Ttis also noteworthy, that since the long-term stress losses in bonded tendons atthe second suppor is less than that of the unbonded case, the in-service stress is slightly higher. For the long-term loss compu- tations the software used follows [Zia etal 1979] TABLE 1: TENDON STRESS COMPARISONS. Post-Tensioning Stress ratio and Location System [Vnbonded | Bonded | Tong-tenm inservice sess 1.00 103 | Stress at nominal stengih™ Lis 138 ([ Tanger in-service average stress 1.0 108 * Attop of second support ‘The average force in the strand is a measure of a strand’seffective- ness during the service life ofthe structure. This includes perfor- ‘mance for lower cracking and deflection. The above comparison was ‘made on the premise thatthe two strands can be placed with the same profile. In practice, however, due to the larger size of a bonded ten- don, the effective drape of a bonded tendon is generally less than that of its unbonded counterpart. Refer to Figs 5 and 6 for the maximum drapes attainable in the design example for the two systems. The impact of a lesser drape is reflected in the design example given in Figure 4. UNT SELECTED FOR COMPAR'SON eZ ee LLL 389-0" (5780 m) PLAN OF FLOOR BEAM/SLAB UNIT SELECTED FOR COMPARATIVE REVIEW FIGURE 4 2.2 Design Atte design stage, using the governing building codes and construc- tion practice, the magnitude of prestressing, the amount and disposi- tion of nonprestressd ste!, andthe detailing ofthe prestressed m ber are finalized. Using ACI-318 Building Code [ACI-1992}, and the Uniform Building Code [UBC 1994] the principal items which affect the design and economy of a prestressed’ member are listed below. It should be noted that, building codes other than those used herein may ‘impose different restrictions than those listed below. The application cof most ofthe criteria quoted is self explanatory in the design exam- ple given. Concrete Cover to Tendon for Fre Resistivity ‘Most building structures are designed for a 2-hour fre resistivity, some fora 3-hour rating. UBC Table 7-A gives the same value of ‘cover for both bonded and unbonded tendons. ACI-318 does address this requirement. Concrete Cover to Tendon for Protection Against Corrosion ACI section 7.7 and UBC (UBC 1994] do not differentiate between unbonded and bonded tendons inthis respect. Permissible Service and Initial Stresses in Concrete ‘Same for both systems POST-TENSIONING INSTITUTE [ll