WESTERN UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

CEE 9628b Prestressed Concrete (Assignment # 4)

Dr. Maged A. Youssef, P.Eng. Page: 1

If you consider that there is missing information, you are urged to make a reasonable assumption and
submit a clear statement of this assumption.

Problem 1:

The rectangular stress-block parameters that were derived in the lecture notes are based on a constant
section width and having a zero-strain point within the section height. However, with some modification,
they can be used in other situations. You are required to use the factors to determine the magnitude and
position of the resultant concrete force for the two sections shown in Fig. 1.

Given:
f c' = 40 MPa, ε o  -0.002, 𝜀 0.0023, 𝜀 0.001

Hint: Add a fictitious area to the cross-section to obtain a constant width area and/or to reach the point
of zero strain; determine the resultant by subtracting the force on the fictitious area from the resultant
of the total area.

100 m
1500 mm
600 mm
600 mm

250 mm 250 mm

Fig. 1 Cross section of Concrete Beams

 WESTERN UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF ENGINEERING
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

CEE 9628b Prestressed Concrete (Assignment # 4)

Dr. Maged A. Youssef, P.Eng. Page: 2

Problem 2:

Fig. 2 shows the cross-section of a precast pre-tensioned single-tee beam. The beam is simply supported
and has a span of 18 m. The low-relaxation prestressing strands were tensioned to a stress of 1250 MPa
in the pre-tensioning bed, before casting the concrete. The stress-strain curve of the strands is shown in
Fig. 3 (fpu = 1860 MPa, Ep= 200,000 MPa). The strands have constant eccentricity along the span of the
beam, and you can ignore prestress losses. Given that 𝑓 ′ 40 MPa, 𝜀 0.002 mm/mm, calculate
the moment and curvature at prestressing, cracking, and decompression.
60 mm

2200 mm
1000 mm

200 mm

CG of
Strands
14-15 mm seven-wire strand

250 mm

Fig. 2 Beam Section

Stress

 f
p pu

 f
p py

 E
p p
Strain

0.0415
Fig. 3 Strand Stress-Strain Curve