Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
net/publication/316494450
CITATION READS
1 4,818
2 authors:
Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:
All content following this page was uploaded by Ali A. Abdulhameed on 26 April 2017.
1 | P a g e
From the preceding discussion, it is easy to see why prestressing
has captured the imagination of so many persons and why it has all
sorts of possibilities now and in the future. In the earlier chapters of this
book, only a portion of the concrete cross sections of members in
bending could be considered effective in resisting loads because a large
part of those cross sections were in tension, and thus the concrete
cracked. If, however, concrete flexural members can be prestressed so
that their entire cross sections are kept in compression, then the
properties of the entire sections are available to resist the applied
forces.
Figure 1: Prestressing process.
Figure 3: Prestress bed.
4 | P a g e
In posttensioned construction (Figure 4), the tendons are stressed
after the concrete is placed and has gained the desired strength. Plastic
or metal tubes, conduits, sleeves, or similar devices with unstressed
tendons inside (or later inserted) are located in the form and the
concrete is placed. After the concrete has sufficiently hardened, the
tendons are stretched and mechanically attached to end anchorage
devices to keep the tendons in their stretched positions. Thus, by
posttensioning, the prestress forces are transferred to the concrete not
by bond but by end bearing.
Figure 4: Posttensioned Beam.
5 | P a g e
1) The modulus of elasticity of such concretes is higher, with the result
that the elastic strains in the concrete are smaller when the tendons
are cut. Thus, the relaxations or losses in the tendon stresses are
smaller.
2) In prestressed concrete, the entire members are kept in compression,
and thus all the concrete is effective in resisting forces. Hence, it is
reasonable to pay for a more expensive but stronger concrete if all of
it is going to be used. (In ordinary reinforced concrete beams, more
than half of the cross sections are in tension and, thus, assumed to be
cracked. As a result, more than half of a higher‐strength concrete used
there would be wasted.)
3) Most prestressed work in the United States is of the precast,
pretensioned type done at the prestress yard, where the work can be
carefully controlled. Consequently, dependable higher‐strength
concrete can readily be obtained.
4) For pretensioned work, the higher‐strength concretes permit the use
of higher bond stresses between the cables and the concrete.
High‐strength steels are necessary to produce and keep satisfactory
prestress forces in members. The strains that occur in these steels
during stressing are much greater than those that can be obtained with
ordinary reinforcing steels. As a result, when the concrete elastically
shortens in compression and also shortens because of creep and
shrinkage, the losses in strain in the steel (and thus stress) represent a
smaller percentage of the total stress. Another reason for using high‐
strength steels is that a large prestress force can be developed in a small
area.
5. Stress Calculations
For a consideration of stresses in a prestressed rectangular beam, refer
to Figure 5. For this example, the prestress tendons are assumed to be
straight, although it will later be shown that a curved shape is more
practical for most beams. The tendons are assumed to be located an
eccentric distance, e, below the centroidal axis of the beam. As a result,
the beam is subjected to a combination of direct compression and a
moment because of the eccentricity of the prestress. In addition, there
will be a moment from the external load, including the beam’s own
weight. The resulting stress at any point in the beam caused by these
6 | P a g e
three factors can be written as follows, where P is the prestressing
force:
∓
In this expression, P is the prestress force, e is the eccentricity of the
prestress force with respect to the centroid of the cross section, c is the
distance from the centroidal axis to the extreme fiber (top or bottom
depending on where the stresses are being determined), M is the
applied moment from unfactored loads at the stage at which stresses
are being calculated, A is the uncracked concrete cross‐sectional area,
and I is the moment of inertia of the gross concrete cross section. In
Figure 5, a stress diagram is drawn for each of these three items, and all
three are combined to give the final stress diagram.
Figure 5 Concrete stress distribution from eccentric prestress force and
superimposed loads.
The usual practice is to base the stress calculations in the elastic range
on the properties of the gross concrete section. The gross section
7 | P a g e
consists of the concrete external dimensions with no additions made for
the transformed area of the steel tendons or subtractions made for the
duct areas in posttensioning. This method is considered to give
satisfactory results because the changes in stresses obtained if net or
transformed properties are used are usually not significant.
The example below (example 1) illustrates the calculations needed to
determine the stresses at various points in a simple‐span prestressed
rectangular beam. It will be noted that, as there are no moments at the
ends of a simple beam from the external loads or to the beam’s own
weight, the Mc/I part of the stress equation is zero there and the
equation reduces to:
∓
Example 1: Calculate the stresses in the top and bottom fibers at the
centerline and ends of the beam shown below.
Figure 6. Information for Example 1.
8 | P a g e
Solution:
Section Properties:
1
12 24 13824
12
12 24 288
1
3 20 150 .
8
250 250 9 12
1.085
288 13824
250 250 9 12
2.821
288 13824
9 | P a g e
In example 1, it was shown that when the prestress tendons are
straight, the tensile stress at the top of the beam at the ends will be
quite high. If, however, the tendons are draped, as shown in Figure 7, it
is possible to reduce or even eliminate the tensile stresses. Out in the
span, the centroid of the strands may be below the lower kern point as
shown in the example 2 for determination of the kern point for this
section, but if at the ends of the beam, where there is no stress due to
dead‐load moment, it is below the kern point, tensile stresses in the top
will be the result. If the tendons are draped so that at the ends they are
located at or above this point, tension will not occur in the top of the
beam.
Figure 7. Draped tendons.
11 | P a g e
prestress plus total loads is 0.7 fc’. In effect, the ACI here provides a one‐
third increase in allowable compression stress when a large percentage
of the service loads are deemed to be transient or of short duration.
The allowable tensile stress at ends of simply supported members
immediately after prestress transfer is 0.6 fci’. Section 18.4.3 of the
code allows higher permissible stresses than those here under certain
conditions. The commentary on this section of the code states that it is the
intent of the code’s writers to permit higher stress values when justified by
the development of newer and better products, materials, and prestress
techniques. Approval of such increases must be in accordance with the
procedures of Section 1.4 of the code.
Example 2:
Determine the location of the lower kern point at the ends of the beam
of Example1. Calculate the stresses at the top and bottom of the beam
ends, assuming the tendons are placed at the kern point.
Solution:
Locating the Kern Point;
250 250 12
0
288 13824
0.868 0.217 0
4 .
Computing Stresses;
250 250 4 12
288 13824
0.868 0.868 0
250 250 4 12
288 13824
0.868 0.868 1.736
12 | P a g e
References:
1. American Concrete Institute, 2011, Building Code Requirements for
Structural Concrete (ACI 318‐11), Farmington Hills, Michigan.
2. Nawy, E. G., 2006, Prestressed Concrete: A Fundamental Approach,
5th ed., (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice‐Hall), p.38.
3. Winter, G., and Nilson, A. H., 1991, Design of Concrete Structures,
11th ed., (New York: McGraw‐Hill), pp. 759–760.
4. McCormac, J. C. and Brown, R. H., 2014, Design of Reinforced
Concrete, 9th ed. (John Wiley & Sons,), chapter 198.
5. Krishna, N. R., 2006, Prestressed concrete, 4th ed., McGraw‐Hill
Publishing Company Limited, New Delhi.
6. Naaman, A. E., 2004, Prestressed Concrete Analysis and Design
Fundamentals, printed in USA.
13 | P a g e