KALINGA STATE UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

PRESTRESSED CONCRETE
LESSON 1

ENGR. ELIZABETH C. LUMIOAN

2nd SEMESTER
2020-2021
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INTRODUCTION

Reinforced concrete is the most widely used structural material of the 20th century. Because the tensile
strength of concrete is low, steel bars are embedded in the concrete to carry all internal tensile forces. Tensile forces
may be caused by imposed loads or deformations, or by load-independent effects such as temperature changes or
shrinkage. Consider the simple reinforced concrete beam shown in Figure 1.1. The external loads cause tension in the
bottom fibres which may lead to cracking, as shown. Practical reinforced concrete beams are usually cracked under the
day-to-day service loads. On a cracked crosssection, the applied moment is resisted by compression in the concrete
above the crack and tension in the bonded reinforcing steel. Although the steel reinforcement provides the cracked
concrete beam with flexural strength, it does not prevent cracking and does not prevent the loss of stiffness caused by
cracking. Crack widths are approximately proportional to the strain, and hence stress, in the reinforcement. Steel
stresses must therefore be limited to some appropriately low value in order to avoid excessively wide cracks. Similarly,
large steel strain is the result of large curvature, which in turn is associated with large deflection. There is little benefit to
be gained, therefore, by using higher strength steel or concrete, since in order to satisfy serviceability requirements, the
increased strain capacity afforded by higher strength steel cannot be utilized. Prestressed concrete is a particular form
of reinforced concrete. Prestressing involves the application of an initial compressive load on a structure to reduce or
eliminate the internal tensile forces and thereby control or eliminate cracking. The initial compressive load is imposed
and sustained by highly tensioned steel reinforcement reacting on the concrete. With cracking reduced or eliminated, a
prestressed section is considerably stiffer than the equivalent (usually cracked) reinforced section. Prestressing may also
impose internal forces which are of opposite sign to the external loads and may therefore significantly reduce or even
eliminate deflection.

With service load behaviour improved, the use of high-strength steel reinforcement and highstrength concrete
becomes both economical and structurally efficient. As will be seen subsequently, only steel which can be
tensioned with large initial elastic strains is suitable for prestressing concrete. The use of high-strength steel is
therefore not only an advantage to prestressed concrete, it is a necessity. Prestressing results in lighter
members, longer spans, and an increase in the economical range of application of reinforced concrete.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

 Understand the behavior of prestressed concrete

 Understand and know the difference of prestressed concrete and reinforced concrete
 Understand and know the advantages of prestressed concrete
 Know the methods of prestressing

WARM-UP ACTIVITY

Before proceeding to the next page, what is your understanding of prestressed concrete? Type in your
answer/opinion on the “classwork” in your Google Classroom.

PRESTRESSED CONCRETE- LESSON 1 ENGR. ELIZABETH C. LUMIOAN

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LEARNING INPUT

The idea of prestressed concrete has been around since the latter decades of the 19th century, but its use was limited
by the quality of the materials at the time. It took until the 1920s and ‘30s for its materials development to progress to a
level where prestressed concrete could be used with confidence. Freyssinet in France, Magnel in Belgium and Hoyer in
Germany were the principle developers.

The idea of prestressing has also been applied to many other forms, such as:
 Wagon wheels;
 Riveting;
 Barrels, i.e. the coopers trade;
In these cases heated metal is made to just fit an object. When the metal cools it contracts inducing prestress into the
object.

Basic Principle of Prestressing

Basic Example
The classic everyday example of prestressing is this: a row of books can be lifted by squeezing the ends together:

The structural explanation is that the row of books has zero tensile capacity. Therefore the ‘beam’ of books cannot even
carry its self weight. To overcome this we provide an external initial stress (the prestress) which compresses the books
together. Now they can only separate if the tensile stress induced by the self weight of the books is greater than the
compressive prestress introduced.

Concrete
Concrete is very strong in compression but weak in tension. In an ordinary concrete beam the tensile stress at the
bottom are taken by standard steel reinforcement:

But we still get cracking, which is due to both bending and shear:

In prestressed concrete, because the prestressing keeps the concrete in compression, no cracking occurs. This
is often preferable where durability is a concern.

Advantages of Prestressed Concrete

The main advantages of prestressed concrete (PSC) are:

 Smaller Section Sizes - Since PSC uses the whole concrete section, the second moment of area is bigger
and so the section is stiffer:

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 Smaller Deflections - The larger second moment of area greatly reduces deflections for a given section
size.

 Increased Spans - The smaller section size reduces self weight. Hence a given section can span further
with prestressed concrete than it can with ordinary reinforced concrete.

 Durability - Since the entire section remains in compression, no cracking of the concrete can occur and
hence there is little penetration of the cover. This greatly improves the long-term durability of
structures, especially bridges and also means that concrete tanks can be made as watertight as steel
tanks, with far greater durability.

Materials
a. Concrete
The main factors for concrete used in PSC are:
 Ordinary portland cement- based concrete is used but strength usually greater than 50 N/mm2;
 A high early strength is required to enable quicker application of prestress;
 A larger elastic modulus is needed to reduce the shortening of the member;
 A mix that reduces creep of the concrete to minimize losses of prestress;

You can see the importance creep has in PSC from this graph:

b. Steel
The steel used for prestressing has a nominal yield strength of between 1550 to 1800 N/mm2. The different
forms the steel may take are:
 Wires: individually drawn wires of 7 mm diameter;
 Strands: a collection of wires (usually 7) wound together and thus having a diameter that is different to
its area;
 Tendon: A collection of strands encased in a duct – only used in posttensioning;
 Bar: a specially formed bar of high strength steel of greater than 20 mm diameter.

Prestressed concrete bridge beams typically use 15.7 mm diameter (but with an area of 150 mm2)7-wire
super strand which has a breaking load of 265 kN.

Methods of prestressing
As mentioned in the previous section, prestress is usually imparted to a concrete member by highly
tensioned steel reinforcement (wire, strand, or bar) reacting on the concrete. The high strength prestressing
steel is most often tensioned using hydraulic jacks. The tensioning operation may occur before or after the

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concrete is cast and, accordingly, prestressed members are classified as either pretensioned or post-
tensioned.

A. Pretensioned concrete
Figure 1.2 illustrates the procedures for pretensioning a concrete member. The prestressing tendons are
initially tensioned between fixed abutments and anchored. With the formwork in place, the concrete is cast
around the highly stressed steel tendons and cured. When the concrete has reached its required strength, the
wires are cut or otherwise released from the abutments. As the highly stressed steel attempts to contract, the
concrete is compressed. Prestress is imparted via bond between the steel and the concrete. Pretensioned
concrete members are often precast in pretensioning beds long enough to accommodate many identical units
simultaneously. To decrease the construction cycle time, steam curing may be employed to facilitate rapid
concrete strength gain and the concrete is often stressed within 24 hours of casting. Because the concrete is
usually stressed at such an early age, elastic shortening of the concrete and subsequent creep strains tend to
be high. This relatively high time-dependent shortening of the concrete causes a significant reduction in the
tensile strain in the bonded, prestressing steel and a relatively high loss of prestress.

Figure 1.2

B. Post-tensioned concrete
The procedures for post-tensioning a concrete member are shown in Figure 1.3. With the formwork in
position, the concrete is cast around hollow ducts which are fixed to any desired profile. The steel tendons are
usually in place, unstressed in the ducts during the concrete pour, or alternatively may be threaded through
the ducts at some later time. When the concrete has reached its required strength, the tendons are tensioned.
Tendons may be stressed from one end with the other end anchored or may be stressed from both
ends, as shown in Figure 1.3b. The tendons are then anchored at each stressing end. The concrete is
compressed during the stressing operation and the prestress is maintained after the tendons are anchored by
bearing of the end anchorage plates onto the concrete. The post-tensioned tendons also impose a transverse
force to the member wherever the direction of the cable changes. After the tendons have been anchored and
no further stressing is required, the ducts containing the tendons are often filled with grout under pressure. In
this way, the tendons are bonded to the concrete and are more efficient in controlling cracks and providing
ultimate strength.
Bonded tendons are also less likely to corrode or lead to safety problems if a tendon is subsequently
lost or damaged. In some situations, however, particularly in North America and Europe, tendons are not
grouted for reasons of economy and remain permanently unbonded. Most in situ prestressed concrete is post-
tensioned. Relatively light and portable hydraulic jacks make on-site post-tensioning an attractive proposition.
Post-tensioning is also used for segmental construction of large-span bridge girders. Prestress may also be
imposed on new or existing members using external tendons or such devices as flat jacks. These systems are
useful for temporary prestressing operations but may be subject to high time-dependent losses.

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Figure 1.3

Losses
From the time the prestress is applied, the prestress force gradually reduces over time to an equilibrium level.
The sources of these losses depend on the method by which prestressing is applied.

In both methods:
 The member shortens due to the force and this relieves some of the prestress;
 The concrete shrinks as it further cures;
 The steel ‘relaxes’, that is, the steel stress reduces over time;
 The concrete creeps, that is, continues to strain over time.

In post-tensioning, there are also losses due to the anchorage (which can ‘draw in’ an amount) and to the
friction between the tendons and the duct and also initial imperfections in the duct setting out.

For now, losses will just be considered as a percentage of the initial prestress.

Uses of Prestressed Concrete

There are a huge number of uses:
 Railway Sleepers; • Communications poles;
 Pre-tensioned precast “hollowcore” slabs;
 Pre-tensioned Precast Double T units - for very long spans (e.g., 16 m span for car parks);
 Pre-tensioned precast inverted T beam for short-span bridges;
 Pre-tensioned precast PSC piles; • Pre-tensioned precast portal frame units;
 Post-tensioned ribbed slab;
 In-situ balanced cantilever construction - post-tensioned PSC;
 This is “glued segmental” construction; • Precast segments are joined by post-tensioning;
 PSC tank - precast segments post-tensioned together on site. Tendons around circumference of tank;
 Barges;
 And many more.

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POSTTEST

After reading this lesson, you will be able to answer the following:
1. What are the advantages of prestressed concrete?
2. Using a Contrast Matrix, differentiate Reinforced Concrete and prestressed Concrete.
3. Differentiate the Methods of prestressing.
**You may write your answers on a short bond paper and submit a picture or scanned copy of your output
via Google Classroom. You may also encode your answers on a short bond paper (8.5” x 11”), font style:
Times New Roman, font size: 12, 1” margin all-over, follow the format and submit it via Google
Classroom.**

FOLLOW-UP WORK
You may use other resources to answer the following:

Activity 01: There are many uses of Prestressed Concrete. Some ,if not most, of the structures today use
Prestressed Concrete. Make a list of Prestressed Concrete Structures. Indicate the name and
location of these structures. Attach also pictures of these structures. (if possible look for
Prestressed Concrete Structures in CAR and/or Tabuk) Use a short bond paper. Follow the format
posted in the Google Classroom. Limit your output to 5 structures.

REFERENCES/ additional readings

R.I.Gilbert & N.C.Mickleborough. 2004. Design of prestressed Concrete. Spon press. Sydney, Australia.

Dr. Colin Caprani. 2006. Civil Engineering Design (1) Prestressed Concrete.

Joshua 1:9

"Have I not commanded you? Be

strong and courageous. Do not be
afraid; do not be discouraged, for the
LORD your God will be with you
wherever you go."

PRESTRESSED CONCRETE- LESSON 1 ENGR. ELIZABETH C. LUMIOAN