PRESTRESS LAB

ASSIGNMENT NO 1

SUBMITTED TO:
ENG IRFAN KHAN
SUBMITTED BY:

Umer Ijaz
SECTION:
CV. 7c
REGISTRATION No.
BSCT01163223

Department of Technology(civil)
The University Of Lahore
Types of steel used in prestressed concrete:

1. Prestressed concrete:
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Prestressed concrete is composed of high-strength concrete and high-strength steel. Because

of the high strength of these two materials, the resulting structures use much less concrete and
steel and are, therefore, more economical. Concrete is an economical material for carrying
compressive stresses, but has a very low tensile strength. In a prestressed concrete member,
the concrete is precompressed before it is placed in use. As loads are applied, the areas of the
structure which would normally go into tension simply lose some of their precompression. In
this manner, concrete is made to function in either tension or compression. Prestressed
concrete members can be divided into two basic types, pretensioned and post-tensioned. In a
pretensioned member, the tendons are stretched to full load and then the concrete is placed
around them. In a post-tensioned member, the tendons are encased in some sort of hose or
wrapping and placed in the forms. Concrete is placed around the wrapping which protects the
tendon from bond. After the concrete member has cured, the tendons are tensioned by jacks
applied at the end of the member, after tensioning, the space around the tendon is pumped full
of cement grout. Pretensioned members are invariably cheaper than post-tensioned member,
but it is not always possible to use pretensioned member. Because of its extremely high
strength, a prestressing strand is more susceptible to damage than ordinary structural steel and
certain rules must be observed. Extreme heat will cause a strand or wire to lose up to 50
percent of its ultimate strength even though there is no visible evidence of the application of
the heat. Use of electric welding equipment in the vicinity of prestressing tendons should be
avoided because an arc to or from the tendon will generate enough heat to do serious damage.
Nicks and kinks are stress raisers in prestressed concrete strands and, if at all severe, can
cause failures under the tensioning loads normally used. It is standard practice to use
temporary grips to hold the strands under tension in the casting bed until the concrete has
been placed and cured.

1.1. Why is Pre-stressed Concrete Required:

Okay, before get started let’s go back to some basics first. We know, concrete is good at
compression but very weak in tension. And so we see after external loading, in the bottom
part of concrete, a tension zone occurred. So, it tries to be elongated and guess what? It
cracks. This is why we add some steel bars at the bottom section so that it can resist most of
the tension and save concrete from cracking. This is our traditional RC structure. But what
about some megastructures with larger beam span? Think about a flyover or famous Gateway
Bridge in Australia, Incheon Bridge in South Korea or Ringhals nuclear reactor in Sweden
where external loading is very high.
In the way of traditional RC structure, for these larger beam spans, we should provide larger
depth which is often too much that, for a bridge over a river, there will be no enough space
under the bridge for ships to pass it. Here comes this new concept--- Pre-stressed concrete.
The concept of prestressed concrete is not so difficult. In fact, the practice of prestressing
things is very older in our day to day life. Imagine a barrel made of wooden staves and metal
bands. Tung-Yen Lin, a civil engineering professor at the University of California, explained
it in the introductory chapter of his book “Design of Prestressed Concrete Structures".

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Fig 1.1: Requirement of prestressed concrete

The basic principle of prestressing was applied to construction, perhaps centuries ago, when
ropes or metal bands were wound around the wooden staves to form a barrel (see Figure 1).
When the bands were tightened, they were under tensile prestress, which in turn created
compressive prestress between the staves and enabled them to resist hoop tension produced
by internal liquid pressure. In other words, the bands and the staves were prestressed before
they were subjected to any service loads.
T.Y. Lin

Fig 1.2: initial compression is given to be balanced by future loading

Like this, in prestressed concrete, initial compression is given to be balanced by future
loading that will create tension.

1.2. Forms of Pre-stressing Steel:

The development of pre-stressed concrete was influenced by the invention of high strength
steel. It is an alloy of iron, carbon, manganese and optional materials. In addition to pre-
stressing steel, conventional non-pre-stressed reinforcement is used for flexural capacity
(optional), shear capacity, temperature and shrinkage requirements.

Wires. A pre-stressing wire is a single unit made of steel. The nominal diameters of the wires
are 2.5, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 7.0 and 8.0 mm. The different types of wires are as follows:

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1) Plain wire: No indentations on the surface.

2) Indented wire: There are circular or elliptical indentations on the surface.

 Strands. A few wires are spun together in a helical form to form a pre-stressing strand.
The different types of strands are as follows:

1) Two-wire strand: Two wires are spun together to form the strand.

2) Three-wire strand: Three wires are spun together to form the strand.

3) Seven-wire strand: In this type of strand, six wires are spun around a central wire. The
central wire is larger than the other wires.

 Tendons. A group of strands or wires are placed together to form a pre-stressing tendon.
The tendons are used in post-tensioned members. The following figure shows the cross
section of a typical tendon. The strands are placed in a duct which may be filled with
grout after the post-tensioning operation is completed . 

 Cables. A group of tendons form a pre-stressing cable. The cables are used in bridges.

Bars. A tendon can be made up of a single steel bar. The diameter of a bar is much larger than
that of a wire. Bars are available in the following sizes: 10, 12, 16, 20, 22, 25, 28 and 32 mm.

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1.3. Types of Pre-stressing Steel

The steel is treated to achieve the desired properties. The following are the treatment
processes:
 Cold working (cold drawing) is being done by rolling the bars through a series of
dyes. It re-aligns the crystals and increases the strength.
 Stress relieving is being done by heating the strand to about 350°C and cooling
slowly. This reduces the plastic deformation of the steel after the onset of yielding.
 Strain tempering for low relaxation is being done by heating the strand to about
350°C while it is under tension. This also improves the stress-strain behavior of the
steel by reducing the plastic deformation after the onset of yielding. In addition, the
relaxation is reduced.

1.4. Properties of Pre-stressing Steel:

The steel in pre-stressed applications has to be of good quality. It requires the following
attributes:

1) High strength

2) Adequate ductility

3) Bendability, which is required at the harping points and near the anchorage

4) High bond, required for pre-tensioned members

5) Low relaxation to reduce losses

6) Minimum corrosion.

The tensile strength of pre-stressing steel is given in terms of the characteristic tensile
strength (fpk). The characteristic strength is defined as the ultimate tensile strength of the
coupon specimens below which not more than 5% of the test results are expected to fall.

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