PRE-STRESSING

PRE-STRESSING BASIC PRINCIPAL

• Concrete is weak in tension and strong in compression.

• Pre-stressed concrete is a method for overcoming concrete's natural

weakness in tension.

• The tensile strength of concrete is only about 8% to 14% of its

compressive strength. Cracks tend to develop at early stages of
loading in flexural members such as beams and slabs. To prevent such
cracks, compressive force can be suitably applied in the perpendicular
direction. Pre-stressing enhances the bending, shear and torsional
capacities of the flexural members. In pipes and liquid storage tanks,
the hoop tensile stresses can be effectively counteracted by circular
pre-stressing.
CONTINUED

Principal
Pre-stressing tendons (generally of high tensile steel cable or
rods) are used to provide a clamping load which produces a
compressive stress that balances the tensile stress that the
concrete compression member would otherwise experience due
to a bending load.
 TYPES OF PRE-STRESSING
• Pre-tensioning
Placing of concrete around reinforcing tendons that have been
stressed to the desired degree.

• Post Tensioning
Reinforcing tendons are stretched by jacks whilst keeping them
inserted in voids left pre-hand during curing of concrete.
ADVANTAGES OF PSC OVER RCC
• P.S.C. is more durable since there are no tensile cracks, whereas in
R.C.C tensile cracks are unavoidable, hence there is greater
danger of adverse environmental effects.
• As high strength concrete is used and also since dead load
moments can be neutralized P.S.C., dead weight of P.S.C. member
is much less compared to what is required for R.C.C. member.
The dead weight of P.S.C member is about one-third of equivalent
R.C. members.
• The deformation of P.S.C. members is much less compared to that
for an equivalent R.C. member. In case of beams deflection of
P.S.C. beams is about one - Fourth of that of equivalent R.C.
beams.
CONTINUED…..

• P.S.C has high resilience that is., a considerable capacity for

recovering completely from the effect of occasional over-
loadings, without suffering any serious harm. In case of P.S.C.
cracks in such situation which develop temporarily will close
up completely.
• The fatigue strength of P.S.C. is very good.
Disadvantages
• It requires skilled labour and good quality control.
• It needs special technique to apply pre-stressing forces and
Anchorage the wires.
 EXAMPLES OF PRE-STRESSING BEFORE
DEVELOPMENT OF PRE-STRESS CONCRETE

• Force-fitting of metal bands on wooden barrels The metal

bands induce a state of initial hoop compression, to counteract
the hoop tension caused by filling of liquid in the barrels
CONTINUED….

• Pre-tensioning the spokes in a bicycle wheel. The pre-tension

of a spoke in a bicycle wheel is applied to such an extent that
there will always be a residual tension in the spoke
 PRE-STRESSING SYSTEM

• Hoyer system or long line method is often adopted in pre-

tensioning.
• With this Hoyer system, several members can be produced
along one line
• This method is economical and is used in almost all pre-
tensioning factories
• For tensioning, a hydraulic jack is used. Wires are gripped at
the bulkheads, using split-cone wedges.
• The advantage in pre-tensioning system is that there is no
expenditure on end anchorages 
CONTINUED…..

• Disadvantages in this system are that the end abutments

should be very strong and are provided only in pre-cast
factories.
• This naturally limits the size of the member as large sizes are
difficult to transport from factory to the site of construction.
Loss is more in pre-tensioned members.
 POST TENSIONING

• Freyssinet system
• Magnel Blaton system
• Gifford-Udall system
• Lee-McCall system
 FREYSSINET SYSTEM

• Freyssinet system was introduced by the French Engineer

Freyssinet and it was the first method to be introduced. High
strength steel wires of 5mm or 7mm diameter, numbering 8 or
12 or 16 or 24 are grouped into a cable with a helical spring
inside. Spring keeps proper spacing for the wire. Cable is
inserted in the duct.
• Wires are pulled by Freyssinet double acting jacks which can
pull through suitable grooves all the wires in the cable at a time.
One end of the wires is anchored and the other end is pulled till
the wires are stretched to the required length. An inner piston in
the jack then pushes the plug into the cylinder to grip the wires.
FREYSSINET SYSTEM
  MAGNEL BLATON SYSTEM

• In Freyssinet system several wires are stretched at a time. In Magnel

Blaton system, two wires are stretched at a time. This method was
introduced by a famous engineer, Prof. Magnel of Belgium.
• In this system, the anchorage device consists of sandwich plate having
grooves to hold the wires and wedges which are also grooved.
• Each plate carries eight wires. Between the two ends the spacing of the
wires is maintained by spacers. Wires of 5mm or 7mm are adopted.
Cables consists of wires in multiples of 8 wires. Cables with as much as
64 wires are also used under special conditions. A specially device jack
pulls two wires at a time and anchors them. The wires with the
sandwich plate using tapered wedge is shown in fig.4.
 MAGNEL BLATON SYSTEM
 GIFFORD UDALL SYSTEM

• This system originated in Great Britain, is widely used in

India.
• This is a single wire system. Each wire is stressed
independently using a double acting jack. Any number of
wires can be grouped together to form a cable in this system.
• Anchor plate may be square or circular and have 8 or 12
tapered holes to accommodate the individual pre-stressing
wires. These wires are locked into the tapered holes by means
of anchor wedges.
GIFFORD UDALL SYSTEM
 LEE MCCALL SYSTEM

• This method is used to pre-stress steel bars. The diameter of

the bar is between 12 and 28mm. bars provided with threads at
the ends are inserted in the performed ducts. After stretching
the bars to the required length, they are tightened using nuts
against bearing plates provided at the end sections of the
member (fig.6).
LEE MCCALL SYSTEM
 CHEMICAL PRE-STRESSING

• Chemical pre-stressing is done using expanding cement. Pre-

stressing can be applied by embedding steel in concrete made
of expanding cement. Steel is elongated by the expansion of
the concrete and thus gets pre-stressed. Steel in turn produces
compressive stress in concrete.
RESULTANT STRESS
EXAMPLE
 SOLUTION

• Distance of CGS

• Eccentricity e = 150-100 = 50mm

• Pre-stressing Force = 840*18*19.7 = 3*10^5N
• Cross sectional Area = 300*200 = 6*10^4 mm^2
• Moment of Inertia = 45*10^7 mm^4.
CONTINUED..
CONTINUED…
 LOSSES IN PRE-STRESSING

• Pre-stress does not remain constant (reduces) with time.

• Even during pre-stressing of tendons, and transfer of pre-
stress, there is a drop of pre-stress from the initially applied
stress.
• Reduction of pre-stress is nothing but the loss in pre-stress.
ELASTIC SHORTENING OF CONCRETE

• In pre-tensioned concrete, when the pre-stress is transferred to

concrete, the member shortens and the pre-stressing steel also
shortens in it. Hence there is a loss of pre-stress.
• In case of post-tensioning, if all the cables are tensioned
simultaneously there is no loss since the applied stress is
recorded.
 QUANTIFICATION OF THE LOSSES IS
EXPLAINED BELOW.
• Δfp =EpΔεp
=Ep εc
=Ep (fc /Ec )
Δfp = mfc
For simplicity, the loss in all the tendons can be calculated based
on the stress in concrete at the level of CGS.
 ANCHORAGE SLIP

• In most Post-tensioning systems when the tendon force is

transferred from the jack to the anchoring ends, the friction
wedges slip over a small distance.
• Anchorage block also moves before it settles on concrete.
• Loss of pre-stress is due to the consequent reduction in the
length of the tendon.
LOSS OF PRE-STRESS DUE TO SLIP CAN BE
CALCULATED
 FRICTIONAL LOSS

• In Post-tensioned members, tendons are housed in ducts or

sheaths.
• If the profile of cable is linear, the loss will be due to
straightening or stretching of the cables called Wobble Effect.
• If the profile is curved, there will be loss in stress due to
friction between tendon and the duct or between the tendons
themselves.
 FRICTIONAL LOSS

In the absence of test data, IS:1343 - 1980 provides

guidelines for the values of µ and k.
 PRE-STRESS LOSS DUE TO CREEP

• Creep of Concrete: Time-dependent increase of deformation

under sustained load.
• Due to creep, the pre-stress in tendons decreases with time.
• IS: 1343 considers only the age of loading of the pre-stressed
concrete structure in calculating the ultimate creep strain.
• The loss in pre-stress (Δfp ) due to creep is given as follows.
Δfp = Ep εcr, ult =Ep θ εel
Since εcr,ult = θ εel
Ep is the modulus of the pre-stressing steel
 SHRINKAGE OF CONCRETE

• Time-dependent strain measured in an unloaded and

unrestrained specimen at constant temperature.
• Loss of pre-stress (Δfp ) due to shrinkage is as follows.
Δfp = Ep εsh
The approximate value of shrinkage strain for design shall be
assumed as follows (IS 1383):
• For pre-tensioning = 0.0003
• For post-tensioning = 0.002/Log(t+2).
t = age of concrete at transfer in days.
 LOSS DUE TO RELAXATION

• Relaxation is the reduction in stress with time at constant

strain.
– decrease in the stress is due to the fact that some of the initial
elastic strain is transformed in to inelastic strain under constant
strain.
Relaxation loss can be calculated according to the IS 1343-1980
code.
 LOSSES IN PRE-TENSIONING

• Losses due to elastic deformation of concrete

• Losses due to relaxation of stress in steel
• Losses due to creep in concrete
• Losses due to shrinkage of concrete
 LOSSES IN POST TENSIONING

• Losses due to elastic deformation of concrete.

• Losses due to relaxation of stress in steel
• Losses due to creep in concrete
• Losses due to shrinkage of concrete
• Losses due to slip of anchorages
• Losses due to friction
 EXAMPLE

• A concrete beam of dimension 100 mm × 300 mm is post-

tensioned with 5 straight wires of 7mm diameter. The average
pre-stress after short-term losses is 0.7fpk = 1200 N/mm2 and
the age of loading is given as 28 days. Given that Ep = 200 ×
10^3 MPa, Ec = 35000 MPa, find out the losses of pre-stress
due to creep, shrinkage and relaxation. Neglect the weight of
the beam in the computation of the stresses.
 SOLUTION

• Area of concrete A = 100 × 300 = 30000 mm2

• Moment of inertia of beam section I = 100 × 3003 / 12 = 225 ×
106 mm^4
• Area of pre-stressing wires Ap = 5 × (π/4) × 72 = 192.42
mm^2
• Pre-stressing force after short-term losses P0 = Ap.fp0 = 192.4
× 1200 = 230880 N
• Modular ratio m = Ep / Ec = 2 × 105 / 35 × 103 = 5.71
CONTINUED……

• Stress in concrete at the level of CGS

• fc = -Po/A-Poee/I = -10.25 N/mm^2.
• Loss of prestress due to creep (∆fp)cr = Ep εcr, ult
= Ep θεel
= Ep θ (fc/Ec) = m θ fc = 5.71 × 10.25 × 1.6 = 93.64 N / mm^2
Here, θ = 1.6 for loading at 28 days, from Table 2c-1 (Clause
5.2.5.1, IS:1343 - 1980).
• Shrinkage strain from Clause 5.2.4.1, IS:1343 - 1980
• εsh = 0.0002 / log10(t + 2) = 0.0002 / log10 (28 + 2) = 1.354 × 10^-4.
• Loss of prestress due to shrinkage (∆fp)sh = Epεsh = 2 × 10^5 × 1.354
× 10^-4 = 27.08 N/mm^2
• From Table 2c-2 (Table 4, IS:1343 - 1980)
• Loss of pre-stress due to relaxation (∆fp)rl = 70.0 N/mm2 Loss of pre-
stressing force = ∆fp Ap
• Therefore, Loss of pre-stressing force due to creep = 93.64 × 192.42 =
18018 N
• Loss of pre-stressing force due to shrinkage = 27.08 × 192.42 = 5211 N
• Loss of pre-stressing force due to relaxation = 70 × 192.42 = 13469 N
CONTINUED…

• Total long-term loss of pre-stressing force (neglecting the

interaction of the losses and pre-stressing force) = 18018 +
5211 + 13469 = 36698 N
• Percentage loss of pre-stress = 36698 / 230880 × 100% = 15.9
%
 LOSS IN PRE-TENSIONING & POST
TENSIONING
Pre-
Sr. No. Types of Losses Post-Tensioning
Tensioning

No loss due to elastic deformation if all the

wires are simultaneously tensioned. If the
Elastic deformation of
1 Yes wires are successively tensioned, there will be
concrete
loss of prestress due to elastic deformation of
concrete.

2 Relaxation of stress in steel Yes Yes

3 Shrinkage of concrete Yes Yes
4 Creep of concrete Yes Yes
5 Friction No Yes
6 Anchorage grip No Yes