Prestressed Concrete Structures

December 2014 Examination

Comments on student performance

General
 If you have attended all lectures and tutorials, you will discover that ALL of the
techniques and tricks necessary for the solution have been covered.
 Despite repeated reminders during the lectures, many of the mistakes made still fall into
the category of common mistakes.
 Many mistakes can be traced back to problems in concepts.
 Some students made mistakes in calculating prestressing forces.
 Although in marking examination scripts, arithmetic inaccuracies are treated as less
serious than conceptual mistakes, one is expected to tell if certain results are grossly
wrong. For example, one should be alerted by a concrete stress that is obviously excessive
and should check its correctness before proceeding any further.
 Some students were not careful in reading the questions, especially regarding what to do,
what to assume, and what can be ignored.

Question 1
 This is a straightforward question.
 Some students had difficulty in determining the correct prestressing force.
 Some students had difficulty in determining the correct allowable stresses.
 If you have carried out the calculations correctly, there should be no need for untensioned
reinforcement.
 Some students have wrongly calculated the flexural strength, thereby requiring
untensioned reinforcement. In this case, the untensioned reinforcement should be close to
the tension face. In the practical case when longitudinal reinforcement is provided around
the perimeter of cross section, only reinforcing bars close to the tension face will be
effective in improving flexural resistance.

Question 2
 Surprisingly many students had difficulty in correctly determining the bending moment
and shear force at the specified section.
 Some students did not know that we normally assume only the web to contribute to the
shear resistance.
 Those who have attempted the tutorial problem on shear design and checked the answer
should find this problem straightforward.
 A student mixed up vc and Vc.
 To obtain the ultimate bending moment and shear force at the quarter point, it is good
enough to (a) apply the point load there; and (b) apply the UDL on the whole span.
 Strictly speaking, the maximum shear force should be obtained by applying the point load
at the quarter point and the UDL over three quarters of the span. However if this is
adopted, the bending moment should also be calculated accordingly. Then the two
scenarios should be considered to find out which is more critical.
 A few students mistakenly applied the point load at mid-span.

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Question 3
 Part (a) of the question expects the inequalities for Magnel Diagram. Most students
choosing this question did well.
 However only very few could complete most of Part (b).
 In the choice of cable profiles, many students have not considered the necessary spacing
between ducts and the size of end anchorage.

Question 4
 Some students do not understand how composite structures perform.
 The modular ratio should NOT be worked out from the cube strengths but from the
moduli of elasticity. Remember that the modular ratio is related to moduli!
 The in situ slab is entirely in compression under dead load and live load. As the
compression at slab soffit is not critical, the stress condition there may be ignored in the
calculation of maximum safe live load. Many students took it as a tensile stress and
related it to the allowable tensile stress, eventually giving rise to a wrong answer.
 Most students did not read question 4(d) carefully. The props are provided at the third
points rather than at mid-span, although similar arguments apply.

Question 5
 This is a rather straightforward question.
 Some students have overlooked the cover requirements.
 Most students did well in this question.