LESSON 13, FLEXURAL STRENGTH ANALYSIS

The most important single property of a structure is its strength, because a member’s
strength relates directly to its safety. Adequate strength of a prestressed concrete member is not
automatically insured by limiting stresses at service load.

Should the member be overloaded, significant changes in behavior result from cracking,
and because one or both of the materials will be stressed into the inelastic range before failure.

The prestressed concrete beams differ in behavior from reinforced concrete beams. As
the load is increased up to about the service load stage, the forces composing the internal
resisting couple stay nearly constant, the increase in applied moment being resisted through an
increase in the internal lever arm.

STRESS-STRAIN CURVES

For steel:

Where:
fpe, Ԑpe = stress and strain in the steel due to effective prestress force Pe after all losses
fpy, Ԑpy = yield stress and yield strain for the steel
fpu, Ԑpu = ultimate tensile strength and ultimate strain of the steel
fps, Ԑps = stress and strain in the steel when the beam fails
 For concrete:

Where:
f ’c = the ultimate compressive strength of concrete
Ԑcu = the failure strain of concrete
Note: Consistent with the ACI Code, a limiting strain of 0.003 for the concrete will be assumed.

SUCCESSIVE CONCRETE STRESS DISTRIBUTION AS BEAM IS OVERLOADED

For ordinary reinforced concrete beams, prestressed beams may be divided into two
types, based on mode of flexural failure.
 For under-reinforced beams - failure is initiated by yielding of the tensile steel. The
associated large tensile strains permit widening of flexural cracks and upward migration
to the neutral axis.
- The stress in the steel at failure will be between points A and B in the figure.
- The large steel strains produce visible cracking and considerable deflection of the
member before the failure load is reached.
 For over-reinforced beams – fail when the compressive strain limit of the concrete is
reached.