HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF PRESTRESSING

Prestressed concrete is not a new concept, dating back to 1872, when P. H. Jackson, an engineer
from California, patented a prestressing system that used a tie rod to construct beams or arches from
individual blocks.

In 1888, C. W. Doehring of Germany obtained a patent for prestressing slabs with metal wires. But
these early attempts at prestressing were not really successful because of the loss of the prestress with time.
J. Lund of Norway and G. R. Steiner of the United States tried early in the twentieth century to solve this
problem, but to no avail.
After a long lapse of time during which little progress was made because of the unavailability of
high-strength steel to overcome prestress losses, R. E. Dill of Alexandria, Nebraska, recognized the effect
of the shrinkage and creep (transverse material flow) of concrete on the loss of prestress. He subsequently
developed the idea that successive post-tensioning of unbonded rods would compensate for the time-
dependent loss of stress in the rods due to the decrease in the length of the member because of creep and
shrinkage.

In the early 1920s, W. H. Hewett of Minneapolis developed the principles of circular prestressing.
He hoop-stressed horizontal reinforcement around walls of concrete tanks through the use of turnbuckles
to prevent cracking due to internal liquid pressure, thereby achieving watertighteness. Thereafter,
prestressing of tanks and pipes developed at an accelerated pace in the United States, with thousands of
tanks of water, liquid, and gas storage built and much mileage of prestressed pressure pipe laid in the two
to three decades that followed. Linear prestressing continued to develop in Europe and in France, in
particular through the ingenuity of Eugene Freyssinet, who proposed in 1926 through 1928 methods to
overcome prestress losses through the use of high-strength and high-ductility steels. In 1940, he introduced
the now well-known and well-accepted Freyssinet system comprising the conical wedge anchor for 12-wire
tendons.

During World War II and thereafter, it became necessary to reconstruct in a prompt manner many
of the main bridges that were destroyed by war activities. G. Magnel of Ghent, Belgium, and Y. Guyon of
Paris extensively developed and used the concept of prestressing for the design and construction of
numerous bridges in western and central Europe. The Magnel system also used wedges to anchor the
prestressing wires. They differed from the original Freyssinet wedges in that they were flat in shape,
accommodating the prestressing of two wires at a time. P. W. Abeles of England introduced and developed
the concept of partial prestressing between the 1930s and 1960s. F. Leonhardt of Germany, V. Mikhailov
of Russia, and T. Y. Lin of the United States also contributed a great deal to the art and science of the design
of prestressed concrete. Lin’s load-balancing method deserves particular mention
in this regard, as it considerably simplified the design process, particularly in continuous structures.

These twentieth-century developments have led to the extensive use of prestressing throughout the
world, and in the United States in particular. Today, prestressed concrete is used in buildings, underground
structures, TV towers, floating storage and offshore structures, power stations, nuclear reactor vessels, and
numerous types of bridge systems including segmental and cable-stayed bridges. Note the variety of
prestressed structures in the photos throughout the book; they demonstrate the versatility of the prestressing
concept and its all-encompassing applications. The success in the development and construction of all these
landmark structures has been due in no small measure to the advances in the technology of materials,
particularly prestressing steel, and the accumulated knowledge in estimating the short- and long-term losses
in the prestressing forces.
The prestressing force P that satisfies the particular conditions of geometry and loading
of a given element is determined from the principles of mechanics and of
stress-strain relationships. Sometimes simplification is necessary, as when a prestressed
beam is assumed to be homogeneous and elastic

Pre-tensioning: Pretensioned: in this type, the cables tensioned before the casting of concrete then
load transferred after casting of concrete

Stages of Pre-tensioning
In the pre-tensioning system, the high-strength steel tendons are pulled between two end
abutments (also called bulkheads) prior to the casting of concrete. The abutments are fixed at the
ends of a prestressing bed.
Once the concrete attains the desired strength for prestressing, the tendons are cut loose from the
abutments

The prestress is transferred to the concrete from the tendons, due to the bond between them.
During the transfer of prestressing force, the member undergoes elastic shortening. If the tendons
are located eccentrically, the member is likely to bend and deflect (camber).

Post-tensioning concrete: in this type concrete casted first and after it gains the required strength
cables tensioned.

Stages of Post-tensioning
In post-tensioning systems, the ducts for the tendons are placed along with the reinforcement
before the casting of concrete. The tendons are placed in the ducts after the casting of concrete.
The duct prevents contact between concrete and the tendons during the tensioning operation.
Unlike pre-tensioning, the tendons are pulled with the reaction acting against the hardened
concrete.
If the ducts are filled with grout, then it is known as bonded post-tensioning. The grouting operation
is discussed later
In unbonded post-tensioning, the ducts are never grouted and the tendon is held in tension solely
by the end anchorages. The following sketch shows a representation of a grouted post-tensioned
member.
Types of Prestressing Systems
1. Pre-Tensioning System
Hoyer system or long line method is often adopted in pre-tensioning. Two bulk heads or
abutments independently anchored to the ground are provided several meters apart, say,
100m wires are stretched between the bulkheads. Moulds are placed enclosing the wires.
Concrete is placed surrounding the wires.

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. These wedges are made from tapered conical pins. Flat surface of the pin
carries serrations to grip the wire (fig. 1 and 2).

There is another pre-tensioning method known as Shorer system. In this system a central
tube of high strength steel carries the prestress from surrounding wires and the entire
assembly is placed in position and concreted.

After the concrete has attained sufficient strength, the tube is removed and the prestress is
transferred to concrete through bond. The hole left by the tube is grouted.

The advantage in pre-tensioning system is that there is no expenditure on end anchorages

and on rubber core or metal sheath required for post-tensioning system. There is greater
certainty about the prestressing force. In post-tensioned members certainty of the force
depends on the two end anchorages.

Disadvantages in this system are that the end abutments should be very strong and are
provided only in precast 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.
 Fig.1: Typical Pre-
tensioning Bed

Fig.2: Some Typical Wire Gripping System

2. Post-Tensioning System
A metal tube or a flexible hose following intended profile is placed inside the mould and
concrete is laid. Flexible hose is then removed leaving a duct inside the member. Steel
cable is inserted in the duct.

The cable is anchored at one end of the member and stretched using a hydraulic jack at
the other end. After stretching the cable is anchored at the other end also. Therefore post
tensioning system consists of end anchorages and jacks.
 The popular post-tensioning systems are the following:
1. Freyssinet system

2. Magnel Blaton system

3. Gifford-Udall system

4. Lee-McCall system

1. 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.

Fig.3: Freyssinet system of Post-

tensioning

Anchorage device consists of a concrete cylinder with a concentric conical hole and
corrugations on its surface, and a conical plug carrying grooves on its surface (Fig. 3).
Steel wires are carried along these grooves at the ends. Concrete cylinder is heavily
reinforced.

Members are fabricated with the cylinder placed in position. 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.

2. 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 devised jack pulls two wires at a time and anchors them. The wires with the
sandwich plate using tapered wedge is shown in fig.4.

Fig.4: Anchorage of Magnel System

3. 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. There are two types of
anchorage device in this system.

a) Tube anchorages
b) Plate anchorages
Tube anchorage consists of a bearing plate, anchor wedges and anchor grips. Anchor
plate may be square or circular and have 8 or 12 tapered holes to accommodate the
individual prestressing wires. These wires are locked into the tapered holes by means of
anchor wedges.

In addition, grout entry hole is also provided in the bearing plate for grouting. Anchor
wedges are split cone wedges carrying serrations on its flat surface.

There is a tube unit which is a fabricated steel component incorporating a thrust plate, a
steel tube with a surrounding helix. This unit is attached to the end shutters and form an
efficient cast-in component of the anchorage (fig.5).

Fig.5: Plate Anchorage

4. Lee McCall System

This method is used to prestress 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).
 Fig.6: End Anchorage for Lee McCall System

5. Other Methods of Prestressing

a) Electrical Prestressing
in this method, reinforcing bars is coated with thermoplastic material such as sulphur or
low melting alloy and buried in the concrete. After the concrete is set, electric current of
low voltage but high amperage is passed through the bar.

Electric current heats the bar and the bar elongates. Bars provided with threads at the
other end are tightened against heavy washers, after required elongation is obtained.
When the bar cools, prestress develops and the bond is restored by solidification of the
coating.

b) Chemical Prestressing
Chemical prestressing is done using expanding cement. Prestressing can be applied b
embedding steel in concrete made of expanding cement. Steel is elongated by the
expansion of the concrete and thus gets prestressed. Steel in turn produces compressive
stress in concrete.