1.

1 Introduction and Problem Statement

Before 2007, the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) found that many
precast, prestressed concrete bridge girders were arriving at the construction site
with cambers much lower than predicted. It was thought that the method for
estimating the camber at the time of erection was the problem. The method being
used at the time was the �PCI multiplier method,� which specified that the upward
deflection due to initial prestress and downward deflection due to self-weight be
multiplied by 1.80 and 1.85, respectively. In 2007, MnDOT began using a single
multiplier of 1.5, but observed erection cambers were still lower than predicted.
In a study conducted by O�Neill et al. (2012), it was found that, for 1067 girders
produced between 2006 and 2010, the average camber at release on average was only
74% of the predicted design camber. The main factor contributing to the lower than
predicted cambers was the underestimation of the concrete elastic modulus at
release. The underestimation of the elastic modulus resulted from two factors.
First, the relation used to predict the modulus was the ACI 363 equation associated
with high strength concrete (i.e., f�c = 6,000 psi) rather than the Pauw (1960)
equation. Second, the concrete compressive strength at release used in the equation
was underestimated by approximately 15% on average. These factors accounted for the
majority of the difference in the measured to predicted cambers. The remainder of
the difference was attributed to possible prestress losses due to thermal effects
during fabrication. Because the girders are cast on a fixed bed, changes in
temperature during fabrication cause associated changes in stress in the strands.
In this study, it was assumed that the temperature changes that occur prior to
steel/concrete bond result in unrecoverable changes in prestress force that become
locked in the girders. This report summarizes an