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P S I L B: Restressing Chemes For Ncrementally Aunched Ridges by Marco Rosignoli
P S I L B: Restressing Chemes For Ncrementally Aunched Ridges by Marco Rosignoli
By Marco Rosignoli1
ABSTRACT: Incremental launching is a competitive construction method for medium-span prestressed concrete
bridges. Compared with other techniques for in situ casting, in short bridges it is an alternative to the use of
falseworks and reduces the cost of labor with the same investment. In longer bridges it is an alternative to
movable shuttering systems and reduces both investment and labor cost. Compared with segmental precasting,
it may reduce both investment and the cost of prestressing, which may be partial instead of total, with the same
advantages in terms of industrial production. Due to its competitiveness and overall quality, this construction
method is widely used in Europe. During launch, the superstructure is moved over fixed bearings. The super-
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structure dead load produces temporary flexural and shear stresses within the cross section that are quite different
from those produced by the service loads and, consequently, require special prestressing schemes, thoroughly
illustrated in this paper.
LAUNCH PRESTRESSING
Bending stresses in the superstructure segment supported on
the formwork are very low. Prestressing introduced before
launch is mainly aimed at avoiding shrinkage cracks, absorb-
ing the low tensile stresses due to segment extraction from the
formwork, and preparing the segment to be launched over the
temporary curing supports placed between the formwork and
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the launch abutment (Fig. 1), and then over the first span.
The advances in incremental launching saw the creation and
the optimization of many different schemes for launch pre- FIG. 2. Tendons Coupled at Each Joint but Tensioned Alter-
nately Every Two Joints
stressing:
slab in the support sections and to the top slab in midspan, reused more times.
and coupled by overlapping in transverse beams that, in • As an alternative, by tensioning tendons from only one
the case of external final prestressing, can be its deviation side instead of from both, it is possible to use permanent
diaphragms. In this case, the optimum length of the su- pressed strand couplers instead of anchor keys in the dead
perstructure segments is one-third of the current span. anchorage, or the notched zones can be placed immedi-
• Long and parabolic, with polygonal layout symmetrical ately outside the dead anchorage, since, in both cases, the
to the final tendon layout with respect to the gravity axis higher elongation at final tensioning permits the opposite
of the superstructure. In this case, deviation saddles are notched zones to emerge outside the pulling anchorage.
necessary along the span, as in Fig. 7. • The strands should be galvanized and placed in perforated
polyethylene pipes that permit corrosion control in case
The high axial compression produced during launch by final of damage to galvanization during the strand insertion. To
and antagonist tendons permits one to obtain extremely effi- guarantee the safety of workers in the case of breakage
cient cross sections, since the reduction of principal tensile of a strand or of the whole tendon, these pipes are an-
stresses limits the web thickness. The need not to compromise chored to the superstructure by means of collars.
this result with anomalies of the shear force diagram near the • Only one temporary tendon should be dismantled at a
deviation points (especially in the case of internal final ten- time by backward pulling inside plastic sheaths, which
dons, which are parabolic and not polygonal as are the external facilitate extraction and protect the tendon from dirt, and
antagonist tendons) makes the positioning of deviation points immediately reused as a final tendon in the same span.
difficult, and complicates internal formworks.
In spite of these difficulties, these schemes permit one to Antagonist launch tendons were used in the Sathorn Via-
optimize prestress both in the construction stages and in the ducts (Rosignoli 1998) along with internal final tendons (Fig.
service ones. Even construction times are shorter, since the 7). Since the cross-sectional centroid was so high as to penal-
end-of-launch prestressing operations involve fewer tendons, ize the midspan efficiency of antagonist tendons contained into
although the recovery of the antagonist ones is rather difficult. the box cell, they emerged above the top slab and were de-
viated by steel saddles rested on the superstructure. In the sup-
port zones, they were contained inside the webs. Both final
parabolic tendons and antagonist tendons were anchored in the
permanent support zones of the superstructure, and therefore
each launch was as long as the whole span.
An even more radical application of antagonist prestressing
was tested in the Amiens Viaduct (Rosignoli 1998). The launch
tendons, entirely external, were located as follows: two with
a final trapezoidal layout deviated at span quarters, two with
a final triangular layout deviated in midspan, four in antagonist
position with a rigorously symmetrical layout, and six straight
FIG. 7. Prestressing Scheme for Sathorn Bridge: Since Inter- FIG. 8. Widened Bottom Anchor Beams Increase Length of
nal Final Tendons Are Parabolic, External Antagonist Tendons Antagonist Tendons, so that Their Strands Can Be Reused in Fi-
Are Deviated Uniformly in Order to Reduce Shear Force Anom- nal Tendons once Portions Notched by Anchor Keys Have Been
alies Eliminated
from which
zl Mmin
= (10)
zu Mmax
zu
0.33 ⱕ ⱕ 0.42 (11)
FIG. 9. Launch Moment Envelope H
JOURNAL OF BRIDGE ENGINEERING / MAY 1999 / 111
冉 冊
would not be very advantageous, and it is preferable to shape
Mmin the additional tendons so as to obtain the highest eccentricity
F1 = zu ⫺ t A (12a)
I of the resulting force. The importance and the effectiveness of
冉 冊
this correction depends on the quantity of centroidal prestress-
Mmax
F2 = zl ⫺ t A (12b) ing that remains in the superstructure, and therefore on the
I launching technique. Using temporary piers, launch prestress-
Fmin = max(F1, F2) (12c) ing can be relatively low, and the correction to introduce after
launch is important and effective. In the case of full span
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SERVICE PRESTRESSING
Upon completion of the launch, the location of lightened
and stiffened cross sections finally matches the stress diagrams
due to dead load. Launch prestressing tends to be excessive,
since the better distribution of dead load reduces moment and FIG. 10. Negative Bending Moment Produced by Parabolic
shear diagrams with respect to their launch envelopes, and the Prestressing in Simply Supported Beam
bolic Tendons at Any Point of Structure with fine crushed aggregate and then injected with cement
case they suffer high friction losses. When limited to only one
span, they can be anchored at the zero-moment zones of ad-
jacent spans, so that they overlap in the support sections. This
layout doubles their effect in terms of both negative moment
and, if anchored near the bottom slab, shear force. As an al-
ternative, they can be overlapped at any point of the structure
by means of special blisters (Fig. 11).
In both cases, overlapping requires crossing of tendons and
anchoring beams or blisters, and this makes parabolic tendons
rather cumbersome. Once the shear stresses are reduced by the
inclined portion of the tendons, additional prestressing require-
ments can be fulfilled with local straight tendons.
Cap tendons are difficult to tension. However, they are
rarely indispensible, since the parabolic tendons are added to
the centroidal launch prestressing, and this is usually enough
to cover the negative moment. In contrast, span tendons are
convenient, and they are frequently used in the end spans of
the superstructure, especially when it is not possible to reduce
the length of these spans with respect to the internal ones.
Their secondary effects can help in reducing the need for cap
tendons.
External Tendons
External prestressing is adopted more and more frequently
in several countries, because of both the immediate savings
deriving from the shorter duration of construction, and the
long-term savings deriving from higher quality. External ten-
dons pose the problem of resisting local forces and moments
near anchorages, which is more delicate than with internal
prestressing due to both the absence of the force distribution
due to friction, and the convenience of using powerful tendons
to avoid excessive congestion of the box cell. The simplest
solution is to anchor tendons to massive elements, and there-
fore to the support diaphragms. To obtain a tendon layout suit-
able for both moment and shear, it is then necessary to intro- FIG. 12. Shear Force Reduction in Superstructure Support
duce some deviations, with saddles, ribs, or diaphragms. The Zones Depends on Longitudinal Distribution of Deviators
web thickness depends on the shear force reduction near the
support sections of the superstructure, and therefore on the
longitudinal distribution of the deviators (Fig. 12):
FIG. 14. Mixed Prestressing Composed of Permanent Internal Centroidal Tendons Integrated with Temporary Straight External Ten-
dons and Corrected at End of Launch with Straight Internal Tendons and Polygonal External Tendons
13). Compared with the conventional tendon layout (launch external tendons tensioned during construction in the final lay-
prestressing in the slabs and parabolic tendons in the webs) out; the second half used temporarily in an antagonist layout
this scheme permits lightening both the slabs and the webs. to be relieved at the end of launch and repositioned, span by
Subsequent advances saw a final internal centroidal pre- span, in the final layout; temporary straight external tendons
stressing integrated with straight external tendons during that lift the prestressing force to the centroidal level; and fi-
launch (Fig. 14), and corrected at the end of launch with nally, some internal span tendons in the case of long spans.
straight cap and span internal tendons and polygonal external The low residual centroidal prestressing deriving from the
tendons. removal of most of the launch tendons permits sizing the po-
In both cases, launch prestressing is obtained by superim- lygonal tendons to resist most of the permanent loads (with
posing several groups of tendons according to the superstruc- the purpose of resisting fully their flexural effect), and this
ture segmentation. This makes possible relieving and removing leads to an extremely efficient final prestressing.
some tendons at the end of launch. In the second case, these
operations are avoided by using temporary external launch ten- CONCLUSIONS
dons, but their removal may require addition of some final
straight tendons, both in the span and at the supports. Incremental launching is a competitive construction method
Other innovating prestressing schemes derive from the evo- for prestressed concrete bridges in a wide range of spans and
lution of polygonal antagonist prestressing. In a first scheme bridge dimensions. Temporary stresses arise during launch due
(Fig. 15), permanent parabolic internal tendons sized to resist to the superstructure movement over fixed supports. These
most of the dead load are tensioned before launch. Their ec- stresses require special prestressing schemes, whose optimi-
centricity is compensated by antagonist polygonal tendons and zation is carried out by taking both launch and service stresses
reduced by additional straight tendons, all external and tem- into account.
porary. At the end of launch, and after relieving the temporary
launch tendons, prestressing is completed with some polygonal APPENDIX. REFERENCES
and some span tendons, all external and sized for service
loads. The parabolic internal tendons may avoid excessive ob- Breen, J., and Naaman, A. (1990). ‘‘External prestressing in bridges.’’
ACI SP 120, American Concrete Institute, Detroit.
struction of the box cell. Rosignoli, M. (1997). ‘‘Influences of the incremental launching construc-
This concept was improved in bridges built with totally ex- tion method on the sizing of prestressed concrete bridge decks.’’ Proc.
ternal prestressing. A share of the polygonal tendons is ten- Instn. Civ. Engrs. Struct. and Build., London, 122(3), 316 – 325.
sioned in its permanent position before launch, compensated Rosignoli, M. (1998). Launched bridges. ASCE, Reston, Va.