In the name of ALLAH the most Beneficent and the Merciful

Prestressed Concrete

Sequence
What is prestressed concrete Historical background & Perspective Advantages of Pre-stressed concrete over Reinforced concrete Principles, Applications & Types of Pre-stressed Concrete Materials and Hardwares/equipments for Pre-stressed concrete Losses in pre-stressing

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PRESTRESSED CONCRETE
A prestressed concrete structure is different from a conventional reinforced concrete structure due to the application of an initial load on the structure prior to its use. The initial load or prestress is applied to enable the structure to counteract the stresses arising during its service period. The prestressing of a structure is not the only instance of prestressing. The concept of prestressing existed before the applications in concrete. Two examples of prestressing before the development of prestressed concrete are provided.

Historical Background
o Eugene Freyssinet (1879-1962) was the first to propose that we should use very high strength steel which permit high elongation of steel. The high steel elongation would not be entirely offset by the shortening of concrete (prestress loss) due to creep and shrinkage o First prestressed concrete bridge in 1941 in France o First prestressed concrete bridge in US: Walnut Lane Bridge in Pennsylvania. Built in 1949. 47 meter span.
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Historical Perspective
Compression (C) Tension (T) C and T

Stones, Bricks

Bamboo, Ropes

Timber

Concrete

Steel bars, wires

Structural steel Reinforced Concrete

Passive combination of Concrete & steel bars High Strength Concrete High Strength Steel

Active Combination of HSC & HSS

Prestressed Concrete

Principle of Prestressing
Prestressing is a method in which compression force is applied to the reinforced concrete section. The effect of prestressing is to reduce the tensile stress in the section to the point that the tensile stress is below the cracking stress. Thus, the concrete does not crack! It is then possible to treat concrete as an elastic material The concrete can be visualized to have 2 force systems Internal Prestressing Forces External Forces (from DL, LL, etc)
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Advantages of PC over RC
Take full advantages of high strength concrete and high strength steel Need less materials Smaller and lighter structure No cracks Use the entire section to resist the load Better corrosion resistance Good for water tanks and nuclear plant Very effective for deflection control Better shear resistance

Applications of Prestressed Concrete

Bridges Slabs in buildings Water Tank Concrete Pile Thin Shell Structures Offshore Platform Nuclear Power Plant Repair and Rehabilitations

Classification and Types

Pretensioning v.s. Posttensioning External v.s. Internal Linear v.s. Circular End-Anchored v.s. Non End-Anchored Bonded v.s. Unbonded Tendon Precast v.s. Cast-In-Place v.s. Composite Partial v.s. Full Prestressing

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Classification and Types

External vs. Internal Prestressing Prestressing may be done inside or outside Linear vs. Circular Prestressing Prestressing can be done in a straight structure such as beams (linear prestressing) or around a circular structures, such as tank or silo (circular prestressing) Bonded vs. Unbonded Tendon The tendon may be bonded to concrete (pretensioning or posttensioning with grouting) or unbonded(posttensioning without grouting). Bonding helps prevent corrosion of tendon. Unbonding allows readjustment of prestressing force at later times. 11

Unbonded or External Prestressing

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Classification and Types

End-Anchored vs. Non-End-Anchored tendons In Pretensioning, tendons transfer the prestress through the bond actions along the tendon; therefore,it is non-endanchored In Posttensioning, tendons are anchored at their ends using mechanical devices to transfer the prestress to concrete; therefore, it is end-anchored. (Grouting or not is irrelevant) Partial vs. Full Prestressing Prestressing tendon may be used in combination with regular reinforcing steel. Thus, it is something between full prestressed concrete (PC) and reinforced concrete (RC).
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Pre-tensioning vs. Post-tensioning

Pre-tensioning
In Pretension, the tendons are tensioned against some Abutments before the concrete is place. After the concrete hardened, the tension force is released. The tendon tries to shrink back to the initial length but the concrete resists it through the bond between them, thus, compression force is induced in concrete. Pretension is usually done with precast members.

Post-tensioning
In Post-tension, the tendons are tensioned after the concrete has hardened. Commonly, metal or plastic ducts are placed inside the concrete before casting. After the concrete hardened and had enough strength,the tendon was placed inside the duct, stressed, and anchored against concrete. Grout may be injected into the duct later. This can be done either as precast or cast-in-place.
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Precast Segmental Girder to be Post-tensioned In Place

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Prestressed Beam section

Materials and Hardwares for Prestressing

Concrete Prestressing Steel

Concrete: Compressive Strength

AASHTO LRFD For prestressed concrete, the compressive strength should be from 28-70 MPa at 28 days For reinforced concrete, the compressive strength should be from 16-70 MPa at 28 days Concrete with fc > 70 Mpa can be used when supported by test data The minimum grades of concrete for prestressed applications are as follows. 30 MPa for post-tensioned members 18 40 MPa for pre-tensioned members.

High Performance Concrete

With the advancement of concrete technology, high performance concrete is getting popular in prestressed applications. The attributes of high performance concrete are as follows. 1) High strength 2) Minimum shrinkage and creep 3) High durability 4) Easy to cast 5) Cost effective Some special types of high performance concrete are as follows. 1) High strength concrete 2) High workability concrete 3) Self-compacting concrete 4) Reactive powder concrete 5) High volume fly ash concrete 6) Fibre reinforced concrete 19

Cement grout
Cement grout is used to fill the void around post-tensioned tendons and their ducts; a w/c ratio of between 0.35 and 0.40 is typically used, with admixtures often added to improve flow and to reduce shrinkage and the w/c ratio. In some countries such as the UK there is a current trend to move towards pre-bagged grout where the cement and admixture are premixed and delivered to site in accurately measured quantities with just the water needing to be added.
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Prestressing Tendons
Prestressing tendon may be in the form of strands, wires, round bar, or threaded rods Materials
o High Strength Steel o Fiber-Reinforced Composite (glass or carbon fibers)

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Prestressing tendons
A seven-wire strand with a tensile strength of 1860N/mm2 and either 13 or 15mm diameter is a very common form of prestressing and can be used either singularly for pretensioning or in bundles to form multi-strand tendons for post-tensioning as shown in Figure.

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Prestressing Strands
Prestressing strands have two grades
o Grade 250 (fpu = 250 ksi or 1725 MPa) o Grade 270 (fpu = 270 ksi or 1860 MPa) Types of strands Stressed Relieved Strand Low Relaxation Strand (lower prestress loss due to relaxation of strand)

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Losses in Prestress
In prestressed concrete applications, the most important variable is the prestressing force. In the early days, it was observed that the prestressing force does not stay constant, but reduces with time. Even during prestressing of the tendons and the transfer of prestress to the concrete member, there is a drop of the prestressing force from the recorded value in the jack gauge. The various reductions of the prestressing force are termed as the losses in prestress. The losses are broadly classified into two groups, immediate and time-dependent.
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Losses in Prestress
LOSSES

IMMEDIATE

TIME DEPENDENT

ELASTIC SHORTEN

FRICTION

ANCHORAGE SLIP

CREEP

SHRINKAE

RELAXATION

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Thanks

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