TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES

AYALA BLVD., ERMITA, MANILA

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

TE 53 5C
PRESTRESSED CONCRETE

ASSIGNMENT NO. 1

INTRODUCTION TO PRESTRESSED CONCRETE

INTALCO, JOSHUA P.
12-205-066
DATE OF SUBMISSION: NOVEMBER 16, 2016

ENGR. JESUS RAY M. MANSAYON

INSTRUCTOR

1. BRIEF HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT

Once reinforced concrete had been developed by Hennebique at the end of the 19th Century, it
was realised that the performance could be improved if the bars could be placed in tension, thus keeping
the concrete in compression. Early attempts worked, with the beams showing reduced tendency to crack
in tension, but after a few months the cracks reopened. A good description of this early work is given in
Leonhardt. No satisfactory answer was found until it was realised that creep occurred.

Freyssinet's discovery of Creep

Boutiron Bridge is one of three similar bridges built by

Freyssinet over the River Allier, near Vichy, in France, in the
mid 1920s. It is a three-span reinforced concrete arch, with
open spandrels. The river carries a high volume of melt-water
in the spring when the snows melt in the Massif Central. When
an arch is being constructed it has to rest on falsework until it
is complete; normally, wedges underneath the falsework are
knocked out at that time, which drops the falsework away and
transfers the deadweight to the arch. The presence of the
wedging makes the falsework fragile, and the act of dropping it
away from the arch can be dangerous.

Freyssinet decided to avoid these problems and

installed jacks between the two halves of each
arch span. The jacking pockets are still visible
today. By jacking the two arches against each
other, the arches lifted slightly, away from the
falsework, which could then be safely removed.
In-situ concrete was used to fill the gap between
the arches.

A few months after construction, Freyssinet said that he

was cycling to work over the bridge when he realised that
the parapet was no longer straight, but was dipping at the
mid-span of each arch. He concluded that the arch must
have shortened, but he was able to reinstal the jacks, push
the arches apart again, and make good the structure. This
led him to realise that concrete creeps under load. He did
tests to confirm this and concluded that the early attempts
at prestressing had failed because concrete of too poor a
quality had been used (which increased the amount of
creep) and steel bars with too little prestress had been used
(which meant that the creep strains removed the prestress).
At about the same time, in England, Glanville was
pursuing laboratory studies of concrete and coming to
similar conclusions. It is disputed which man actually
discivered creep first, but it is not disputed that Freyssinet
was the first to capitalise on the discovery.

Freyssinet then decided that to make prestressed concrete work, very high quality concrete was needed,
with very high tensile steel wires, stressed as highly as possible. Creep would still occur, but the prestress
that would be left after these losses would still be worthwhile. He set up a company to produce telegraph

poles, using thin concrete tubes made with mortar, and prestressed with piano wire. This company was set
up during the depression and was a financial failure.
Freyssinet's practical systems
Freyssinet then went on to produce practical systems utilising two larger diameter wires (typically 5 or 6
mm) clamped by means of a single wedge between the wires pushing them against an external block. He
patented this in France and elsewhere, and licensed it to a number of companies, including Wayss and
Freitag in Germany. I believe the first description of his work in the UK was by Gueritte in 1936.

A development of the orginal anchorage is this

system, which can grip 12 wires of 5 mm
diameter. The central wedge is grooved to hold
the wires and is made of high-strength mortar. The
barrel is also made of mortar but with external and
internal spirals of steel. The barrel is cast into the
structure and connected to the duct for the tendon.
After the concrete has hardened, the 12 wire
strand is inserted and jacked, using the wedge to
grip the tendon.

Both Freyssinet's systems are shown in use

here. The beam is an arch which formed part
of the roof of a U-boat pen during WWII. The
horizontal tie is formed of prestressed
concrete. These beams were designed to be
placed side by side, and the full depth then
filled with concrete to resist bomb attack. The
lower wires visible on the end of the beam are
the original 2-wire system; these were
pretensioned. When the power of bombs
increased, the roofs were made deeper, which
required more prestress. This was provided
with the newer 12-wire system, which was
placed outside the concrete and posttensioned. The ends of these wires are also
visible. This photo is taken from Grote's book.

2. PRINCIPLES

Prestressed concrete is a concrete construction material which is placed under

compression prior to it supporting any applied loads (i.e. it is "pre" stressed). A more technical
definition is "Structural concrete in which internal stresses have been introduced to reduce
potential tensile stresses in the concrete resulting from loads." This compression is produced by
the tensioning of high-strength "tendons" located within or adjacent to the concrete volume, and
is done to improve the performance of the concrete in service. Tendons may consist of single
wires, multi-wire strands or threaded bars, and are most commonly made from high-tensile steels,
carbon fibre or aramid fibre. The essence of prestressed concrete is that once the initial
compression has been applied, the resulting material has the characteristics of high-strength
concrete when subject to any subsequent compression forces, and of ductile high-strength steel
when subject to tension forces. This can result in improved structural capacity and/or
serviceability compared to conventionally reinforced concrete in many situations. Prestressed
concrete is used in a wide range of building and civil structures where its improved concrete
performance can allow longer spans, reduced structural thicknesses, and material savings to be
realised compared to reinforced concrete. Typical applications range through high-rise buildings,
residential slabs, foundation systems, bridge and dam structures, silos and tanks, industrial
pavements and nuclear containment structures.
First used in the late-nineteenth century, prestressed concrete has developed to encompass
a wide range of technologies. Tensioning (or "stressing") of the tendons may be undertaken either
before (pre-tensioning) or after (post-tensioning) the concrete itself is cast. Tendons may be
located either within the concrete volume (internal prestressing), or wholly outside of it (external
prestressing). Whereas pre-tensioned concrete by definition uses tendons directly bonded to the
concrete, post-tensioned concrete can use either bonded or unbonded tendons. Finally, tensioning
systems can be classed as either monostrand systems, where each tendon's strand or wire is
stressed individually, or multi-strand systems where all strands or wires in a tendon are stressed
simultaneously.

3. METHODS
The prestress in a structure is influenced by either of the two processes:
1. Pre-tensioning, and
2. Post-tensioning
Pre-tensioning can be further classified into two categories:
1. Linear pre-tensioning
2. Circular pre-tensioning
PRE-TENSIONING
Pre-tensioning is accomplished by stressing wires or strands, called tendons, to predetermined amount by
stretching them between two anchorages prior to placing concrete as shown in fig.1. the concrete is then
placed and tendons become bounded to concrete throughout their length. After concrete has hardened, the

tendons are released by cutting them at the anchorages. The tendons tend to regain their original length by
shortening and in this process transfer through bond a compressive stress to the concrete. The tendons are
usually stressed by the use of hydraulic jacks. The stress in tendons is maintained during the placing and
curing of concrete by anchoring the ends of the tendons to abutments that may be as much as 200m apart.
The abutments and other formwork used in this procedure are called prestressing bench or bed.

Fig.1: Section for Pre-tensioning

Most of the pre-tensioning construction techniques are patented although the basic principle used in all of
them is common and is well known.
POST-TENSIONING
The alternative to pre-tensioning is post-tensioning. In a post-tensioned beam, the tendons are stressed
and each end is anchored to the concrete section after the concrete has been cast and has attained
sufficient strength to safely withstand the prestressing force as shown in fig.2. in post-tensioning method,
tendons are coated with grease or a bituminous material to prevent them from becoming bonded to
concrete. Another method used in preventing the tendons from bonding to the concrete during placing and
curing of concrete is to encase the tendon in a flexible metal hose before placing it in the forms. The
metal hose is referred to as sheath or duct and remains in the structure.

Fig.2: Section for Post-tensioning

After the tendon has been stressed, the void between the tendon and the sheath is filled with grout. Thus
the tendons become bonded to concrete and corrosion of steel is prevented.
Post-tension prestressing can be done at site. This procedure may become necessary or desirable in certain
cases. For heavy loads and large spans in buildings or bridges, it may be very difficult to transport a
member from pre-casting plant to a job site. On the other hand, pre-tensioning can be used in pre-cast as
well as in cast-in-place construction.
In post-tensioning it is necessary to use some types of device to attach or anchor the ends of the tendons
to the concrete section. These devices are usually referred to as end anchorages. There are a large number
of patents for different types of anchorages. They may also differ n the details of construction. Some of
the popular methods are:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Freyssinet system
Magnel system
Leonhardt system
Lee-McCall system
Gifford-Udall system

4. MATERIALS
Tendon Ducts. Tendon ducts can be made of corrugated steel or plastic. Plastic ducts offer better
corrosion protection, and provide reduced duct friction. However, they are more expensive.
Although the ducts can be made to very long length, normally they are supplied in standard
lengths. Special care should be taken when joining ducts to ensure that no mortar can get into the
duct during concreting.
Grout Pipes and Vent Pipes. As the cables are usually grouted when stressing has been
completed, grout pipes or air vents have to be provided at suitable intervals.
Strand. Strands are made up of several small diameter wires, twisted around a straight central
wire. The most commonly used strand is seven-wire strand and is available in sizes from 8 mm to
18 mm nominal diameter.
Anchorage. Anchorages are units used in post-tensioning for the transfer of the prestressing
forces to the concrete. They can be further subdivided into stressing anchorages and dead-end
anchorages. In most cases a stressing anchorage is installed at one end of the concrete member
while at the opposite end a dead end anchorage is used. In very long structures especially with
ducts with multiple curvatures stressing anchorages are installed at both ends of the concrete
member.

Compacted Strand. To reduce the percentage of voids in the cross-section of normal strand, the
strand can be drawn through a die which compresses it. For the same nominal diameter, the
amount of steel is higher, thus enabling a larger force to be exerted.
High-tensile alloy-steel bar. High-tensile alloy-steel bars vary in diameter from 20 mm to 50
mm and can be smooth or ribbed. With the smooth bars, threads are rolled on at the ends which
can be used for anchorage purposes or coupling together. The ribbed bars have rolled-on ribs for
the entire length and these ribs act as threads for anchorage purposes.

5. EQUIPMENT
The Prestressed Equipment can consist of a:

Holding Hopper of various sizes

Removable Tarp Cover Roller
Fixed Tarp Cover Roller
Casting Hopper with up to 5 Doors
Wire Pullers
Oscillating Screed Bar
Bed Cleaning Tools