The Precast Show 2014

Prestressed Concrete
Introduction to Prestressed
Concrete
Presented by: Paul Ramsburg, Sika Corp.
• Introduction to prestressing
• Materials Used
• Design Concepts
• Quality Control
• Plant Manufacturing Procedures
• Products and Applications
• Engineering Concepts and Simple Calculations
• Applicable Codes and Guides
2

The books on the

bottom are like
Introduction to Prestressing
pre-compressed
concrete: using a
compressive force,
they support their
own weight… plus
significant
superimposed
loads, represented
by the books on
top.

Introduction to Prestressing
Introduction to Prestressing
• Similar to conventionally reinforced concrete
in many ways
– Concrete Mix
– Steel Reinforcing
– Forming, finishing, curing
• But also very different
– Proactive approach to reinforcement
– Stressed high strength steel transfers force to
concrete

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Introduction to Prestressing
Properties of Prestressing Steel
• Terminology
• Properties of Steel
– Pre-Tesnsioning
• Force applied before the concrete is placed – Very high breaking strengths
– Post Tensioning – Very high elastic properties
• Force applied after the concrete has gained design • Most common high-strength materials for
strength tendons/strands
• Can be bonded or unbonded
– Cold-drawn steel wire
– Alloy steel wire
– High strength bars
7

Plant Manufacturing Procedures

Properties of Prestressing Steel
• One totally new procedure –
• Strands are made of stressing
several wires – Single strand or multiple pull
jacking
• Standard is 7-wire
strand conforming to • And the facilities and equipment
ASTM A416 to develop and contain the forces
– Stressing abutments
• The wires are twisted
– Stressing beds
to form a single
– Concrete member itself
element

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Prestressing Operation & End Prestressing Operation &

Anchorage Concept

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Prestressing Strands Prestressing Strand Rack

Sizes: ¼” dia. to 0.6” dia.
Single Rack Multiple Racks
Grade: 250 ksi and 270 ksi
Type: Stress relieved and low-relaxation (7-
wire)

Maintain Traceability, Strand Heat No’s.

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Materials Used
Prestressing Strand Chuck
• Aggregates
– Nonreactive, Chloride free
• Cement and other cementitious materials
– Alkali Content of Cement (ASR, DEF)
• Admixtures
• Water
• High strength concrete
Single Manufacturer Daily Inspections – very high 28 day strengths
• Prestressing reinforcement
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Early Strength Concrete High-Strength Concrete

• High-strength concrete
• Type III Cement - - High Early Strength – When compression
strength exceeds 6,000
• Low W/CM ratios psi
• Accelerated curing (150 to 160 degrees F • Commercial production
according to AASHTO), with protection of concrete 4,000-12,000
against moisture loss psi
– Time of Set before applying heat • Most common concrete
strength is 5,000-6,000
psi

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Codes and Standards

Design Approach
• ASTM A416
– Standard Specification for Steel Strand, Uncoated Seven-Wire
for Prestressed Concrete • Create “equal and opposite” forces to
• ASTM A421 those produced by
– Standard Specification for Uncoated Stress Relieved Steel Wire – live loads Load
for Prestressed Concrete
• ASTM A722 – dead loads
– Specification for Uncoated High Strength Steel Bars for Compression
Prestressing Concrete
• ACI 318 Building Code Requirements for Structural
Concrete, Chapter 18
– Prestressed Concrete Design Approach Tension

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Design Approach: Net Effect

Design Approach: Anticipated
Loads Load
• Must pre-compress the tensile zone
Tension

Compression

Prestressing of beam prior to installation Ideal final positioning of prestressed beam while
in service

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Products and Applications Products and Applications

• Structural members of every sort
– Buildings
– Stadiums
– Bridges
• Architectural Products
– Walls
– Spandrel Beams
– Almost anything
Buildings
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Products and Applications Products and Applications

Bleachers for Stadiums I-Beams for Bridges Architectural Members

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Quality Control - Materials

Quality Control
Reinforcing
• Similar to traditionally reinforced concrete • Prestressing strands
– coils; handling; protection
• Additional items to check, record and – Care – keep clean (rust, oils, dirt, etc.)
inspect • Documentation
– mill reports, heat numbers, supplier,
• Increased level of knowledge required
date received, applicable
– More items and manufacturing processes to specification (ASTM 416 – conformance, comments)
know about • Strand racks
– pull out, ID tags

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Quality Control – Materials (cont.)

Computation of Carbon Equivalence (C.E.)
• Welding of secondary reinforcement
(rebar) -- stick or stud %C + %Mn/6 + %Cu/40 + %Ni/20 + %Cr/10 - %Mo/50 - %V/10
• AWS D1.1 (Structural), AWS D1.4 Where:
(Reinforcing) or AWS D1.5 (Bridge) C = CARBON
• Test shop welds Mn = MANGANESE
• Follow approved welding protocols Cu = COPPER
• Use weldable grade steel, or calculate Ni = NICKLE
carbon equivalent and determine preheat
Cr = CHROMIUM
requirements
Mo = MOLYBDENUM

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V = VANADIUM 30

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Quality Control – Materials

Computation of Carbon Equivalence (C.E.)
Normal tests for quality concrete
• Approximate
– gives an approximate value for C.E. when all • Mill Cert to identify type of cement
properties are not known – Cement to conform to ASTM C150
• Aggregates
– ASTM C33 (concrete aggregates) & ASTM C330 (lightweight
C.E. = % C + Mn/6 aggregates)
• Water
– Water shall be potable in concrete mixes
– ASTM C1602 (test for non-potable water)

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Quality Control – Materials

Quality Control – Materials
Other Standard Testing For Quality • Establish preset time prior to accelerated cure
– ASTM C403 Standard Test Method for Time of Setting of
Mixes: Concrete Mixtures by Penetration Method
• Compressive Strength • Strength at detensioning must be predetermined

• Air Content
• Unit Weight
• Slump and Temperature
• Permeability
• Absorption

Quality Control – Materials Quality Control – Materials

• Possibly of greater importance than before
– Air content
• high air percentages reduce strength; larger aggregate sizes reduce • Never use calcium chloride
total paste need (and thus air entrainment percent needed)
– Absorption • May use:
• an increase may lead to freeze thaw deterioration, product surface
delamination – High range water reducing agents
– Permeability
• an increase will lead to more concrete deterioration problems,
– Viscosity modifiers
especially in the many applications of product exposure to severe
water/weather conditions – Air Entraining Agents
– Coulomb rate – Accelerators
• often specified to prevent deterioration from salt intrusion into bridge
members (NPCA has a requirement) – Retarders

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Plant Manufacturing Procedures Plant Manufacturing Procedures

• Force induction • Initial stress (force) – purpose
– rebar is benign, strand is active – “get the slack out”
• Jacking system • Secondary stress
– single strand or multi-strand
– deflected strands (hold up, push down, hold
• Gauges and elongation measurement down)
– Load cells may be used to measure the force
pulled on the strands
– Stressing equipment calibrated to read pounds
of force

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Plant Manufacturing Procedures Plant Manufacturing Procedures

(cont)
• Casting & Consolidation
– Ensure quality products with standard
operations
– Secure voids
– Secure inserts
– Secure cages before casting & vibrating

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Plant Manufacturing Procedures Plant Manufacturing Procedures

• Document the following
– Stressing
• Repairs – corrections for chuck set
– abutment movement
– Cracks, Honeycomb, Spalls
– strand concrete mix temperature
– Minor, major definitions (possibly the same) – bed shortening
– Submit case by case; document procedures • Safety – respect for forces involved
– Cracks: evaluate, document, repair – Care and inspection of equipment
– Visible & audio warnings
– Keep personnel clear

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Plant Manufacturing Procedures

Calculation of Elongation
• Force containment
elongation = PL /AE + (corrections)
– fixed abutments
• steel or concrete
• P = Force Final force less Initial seating
• flexibility for change in the strand patterns
force (lbs.)
• prevention of movement • L = Length of strand (inches)
• Safety device when used properly • A = Area of Strand from Mill Certificate
– self stressing forms (inches2 or square inches )
– Special design • E = Modulus of Elasticity from Mill
Certificate (psi)

43

Plant Manufacturing Procedures Plant Manufacturing Procedures

• Formwork
– Must be designed and
manufactured by a
competent person that
understands forces
produced in service
– Steel is typically used
for forms
– Forms should be stored
and maintained properly
to avoid damaging
• Formwork (continued)
– The designer must
consider
• All forces that will be
produced for
prestressed members
• Pieces sliding in the
bed during de-
tensioning
• Forces imparted by
separating bulkheads
and depressed strands

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Plant Manufacturing Procedures Curing with Heat & Moisture

• Accelerated curing
– To achieve early strength to enable • Time of Concrete Set
detensioning • Max Temp for prestress
– Steam curing 1500F
– Type III Cement • Max temp rise of 40 0F / hr
– Accelerators
– Maximum temperature
– Rate of temperature rise and cool down

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Plant Manufacturing Procedures Plant Manufacturing Procedures

• Detensioning or Stress Transfer • Measure & Document strand slip
• excessive slip is loss of design prestress force
– Achieve predetermined concrete strength
• measuring it is a required QC function
– Procedures • documentation is needed as proof
• flame cut – of adequate force transfer
– to provide data for engineering evaluation
• saw cut
• predetermined pattern
• Safety
• equipment use,
• multiple locations • free end whip
• product movement
• cut all strands

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Plant Manufacturing Procedures Plant Manufacturing Procedures

• Material Handling, Yard Storage & Shipping
– Heavier pieces
• Lifting inserts & apparatus; hoisting equipment;
care
– Better ground support
– Care in locating dunnage, placing chains,
double stacking
– Evaluate truck movements

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Plant Procedures
Correct Yard Storage Epoxy Strand Ends

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Plant Manufacturing Procedures

• Safety, SAFETY, SAFETY !!

• Respect the forces being created
• Include specific safety sections concerning
stressing in your Plant QC
Program/Manual
• Train workers to understand and respect
the dangers

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Plant Manufacturing Procedures Design Approach

• Self consolidating concrete (SCC)
– Does this change the stressing picture?
• No
– SCC is a free flowing concrete, resulting in a high
strength, quality product
• Yes
– increased fluidity results in a reduction of strand bond
capacity (even more pronounced for strand located near
the top surface – ‘top bar effect’)
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• Cracked versus non-cracked
– Reinforced concrete (steel takes tension,
concrete in compression, deflection when
loaded)
– Prestressed concrete (steel takes tension,
concrete in compression, deflection when
loaded)
– Design for non-cracked in tension region
(cracking strength of concrete = 7.5 √fc
– Simple design example
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Design Approach
Design Approach
• What is Camber and Deflection?
• Accounting for variables in prestress loss – Camber is a built-in upward
curvature of a beam or girder for its
– Anchorage seating loss sag (deflection) due to its self weight
– Shrinkage of concrete and imposed loads
– Creep of concrete and tendon (relaxation) – Deflection is the amount of
movement of the axis of a beam or
– Range of values for total loss; estimate p/s girder caused due to its self load and
losses imposed loads
– Correction for temperature of steel
– Friction in post tensioning cables

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Design Approach Design Approach

• Camber and deflection will change over • Efficiency of section

time because of: – Achieved through utilization of full depth
– Concrete creep – Achieved with high strength concrete
– Steel relaxation – Achieved with thinner section
– Magnitude of loads that are sustained – Achieved with composite action
– Achieved with strand debonding

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Products and Applications Quality Control – Requirements

• The advantages of prestress concrete: • Equipment calibration
– Spanning greater distances with thinner members
– High strength concrete for thinner sections and longer
• Record keeping
spans • Trained personnel
– High strength, density, and crack elimination makes it
more resistant to environmental attack
• Inspect and document
– Long line production & efficient material utilization – Tensioning
helps economy of section – Form set up/ prepour
– Long spans, bigger pieces, mean less erection time – Concrete temperature and rate of rise/cool
– Detensioning

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Quality Control – Requirements

Engineering Concepts and Calculations

• Stressing safety related items: chucks, • Strand elongation

plates, abutments, warning alarms; safety
screens; clear area
• Post-pour: dimensional & visual checks;
camber of product versus design camber
• Tension in strands changes
• End bursting force
• Push down/hold up force changes
• Tensioning losses calculations
• Determination of strand (force) required
• Strand debonding

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Engineering Concepts and Calculations Engineering Concepts and Calculations

• Prestress Changes
– Push downs or hold ups can be added after Push down example – stressing bed
strand is tensioned, or installed before hand
– Either way, there are serious forces involved
– If strand is stressed in the harped position,
friction forces must be taken into account
– If strand is stressed straight and then pulled
or pushed into a new line, additional forces
are induced into the strand (and the
equipment)

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Push Down Device Hold Up Device

Engineering Concepts and Calculations Engineering Concepts and Calculations

• Determination of force required:
• Tensioning losses:
– Number and type of strands, etc.
– Based on
• to be determined by the Engineer of Record (EOR)
• Strand chuck seating, slippage
• must be noted on shop drawings
• Abutment rotation or bed shortening
• Strand relaxation
– ASTM A416 – two types and two grades of
seven-wire, uncoated steel strand grade 250
• Temperature change (cold strand, warm concrete)
ksi or 270 ksi
• Rotation of Ram and unwinding of Strand
– ASTM A416 – low relaxation strand and
– Resulting in a design a calculation for
stress-relieved (normal relaxation)
additional elongation of strand at tensioning

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Engineering Concepts and Calculations Engineering Concepts and Calculations

• Strand Debonding
• Broken Wire in Strands
– Technique for preventing the strand from
bonding to the concrete at determined – Do not exceed 5% of allowable variation in
locations total force
– Methods – split sheathing, coating strand with – Limited to 2% of the wires in the total group
a material to prevent bond – not symptomatic of other stress problem
– Special care

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Quality Matters Applicable Codes and Guides

• ACI 318
• ASTM International
• AASHTO
• IBC, ICC
• ASCE
• PTI
• State and Local Agencies

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Introduction to Prestressed
Concrete
Presented by: Paul Ramsburg, Sika Corp.

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