ASSIGNMENT

SEEMAB ALI
(BSCT01161074)
cv-6(M)
Table of Contents
1. The History of Prestressed Concrete: - 1888 to 1963 ........................................................................... 3
2. APPLICATIONS OF PRESTRESSED CONCRETE: - ..................................................................................... 4
2.1. Buildings: ...................................................................................................................................... 4
2.2. Slab-on-Ground (SOG): ................................................................................................................ 5
2.3. Precast segmental bridges: ............................................................................................................ 6
2.4. Extradosed segmental bridges:...................................................................................................... 7
2.5. Concrete containment and sto rage structures:.............................................................................. 8
3. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION: - ........................................................................................................... 8
REFERENCES .................................................................................................................................................. 9

Table of Figure
Figure 1:Prestressed Concrete Beam Design ................................................................................................ 3
Figure 2: Some of the well-recognized advantages of the post-tensioning in buildings are ......................... 4
Figure 3: Mechanical/electrical installations are much simpler with post-tensioned floors ......................... 5
Figure 4: Post-tensioned slab-on-ground ensures durability and low maintenance cost .............................. 5
Figure 5: Precast segmental highway bridges ............................................................................................... 6
Figure 6: Precast segmental rail bridges ....................................................................................................... 7
Figure 7: Pakse extradosed bridge, Laos ...................................................................................................... 7
Figure 8: N’Kossa Barge, France .................................................................................................................. 8
 1. The History of Prestressed Concrete: - 1888 to 1963

The concept of prestressed concrete appeared in 1888 when P.H. Jackson was granted the
first patent in the United States for prestressed concrete design. Jackson’s idea was perfect, but
the technology of high strength steel that exhibited low relaxation characteristics was not yet
available. It was not until Eugene Freyssinet defined the need for these materials that prestressed
concrete could be used as a structural building material. Unfortunately, although Freyssinet, a
brilliant structural designer and bridge builder, lacked the teaching qualities necessary to
communicate his ideas to other engineers. It would take Gustave Magnel to write the first book
of design in prestressed concrete, communicating this idea to designers worldwide.

Magnel designed and built the legendary Walnut Lane Bridge in Philadelphia, which
revolutionized prestressed concrete in America. Simultaneously, Urlich Finsterwalder, the
German bridge builder and designer, was revolutionizing the construction means and methods
for prestressed concrete bridges. For example, Finsterwalder invented the free-cantilever
construction method of prestressed concrete bridges, which allowed long span bridges to be
constructed without stabilized shoring. He then designed stress-ribbon bridges, which would
eventually allow prestressed concrete to span distances only steel suspension bridges could
achieve.

However, it wasn’t until Paul Abeles and his peer, H. von Emperger studied and tested
prestressed concrete that the idea of “partial prestressing” emerged. Initially, Freyssinet and
Magnel were adamant that prestressed concrete should not be allowed to exhibit any tensile
forces at sustained loading.

Later, the Roebling family developed the first stress--relieved wire followed by the first
stress-relieved strand. T.Y. Lin once again brought prestressed concrete back into the spotlight
when he organized the First Prestressed Concrete World Conference in 1957. Shortly after this
conference, Lin published a technical paper in the Prestressed Concrete Institute (PCI) Journal
that introduced a new Load Balancing technique which allowed most structural engineers to
design prestressed concrete very easily.

Figure 1:Prestressed Concrete Beam Design

 2. APPLICATIONS OF PRESTRESSED CONCRETE: -
There are many applications of prestressed concrete in civil engineering that are given below
with detail.

2.1. Buildings:
The USA, Australia and some countries in South East Asia and South America use more
than half of the prestressing steel for the post-tensioning of building floors. Typical
applications are office buildings, shopping centres, hotels and even some residential
construction, see Fig.1. However, in Europe the use of prestressed concrete in building
floors is still marginal in most countries and at best low for special precast pretensioned
members in a few Northern European countries.

a) Office building b) Car parking c) Hotel

Figure 2: Some of the well-recognized advantages of the post-tensioning in buildings are
(1) Longer spans of floors creating large open space in buildings and offering significant
flexibility and comfort to the users;
(2) reduced material consumption for concrete (-20%) and reinforcing steels (-65%), and hence,
reduced labour (-60%) and cranage needs;
(3) fast cycle times for formwork and reduced need for back-propping because of the load
balancing produced by the post-tensioning tendons when stressed;
(4) post-tensioned flat slabs can be used even for quite large spans permitting easier installation
of electrical and mechanical installations with reduced overall floor-to-floor height, see Fig.
12;
(5) post-tensioning tendons installed across supporting columns and walls offer significant
redundancy under accidental loading and can prevent progressive collapse.
 a) Installations with conventional b) Installations with postensioned
reinforced concrete or composite floor concrete floor
Figure 3: Mechanical/electrical installations are much simpler with post-tensioned floors

2.2. Slab-on-Ground (SOG):

Slabs-on-ground and industrial floors are relatively thin plates which sit directly on the
ground. They are typically used for container terminals, warehouses, storage facilities and
distribution centers. These slabs/ floors are subject to wheel loads (trucks, forklifts) and point
loads from storage racks. They are used both inside buildings and externally, Fig. 4.

a) Warehouse with indoor SOG b) Outside application of SOG c) Good detailing for SOG

Figure 4: Post-tensioned slab-on-ground ensures durability and low maintenance cost

Many of today’s slabs/ floors are built in unreinforced concrete with expansion joints every few
meters to limit restraints due to shrinkage and temperature movements of concrete. However,
these joints usually have a poor behaviour over time and cause significant maintenance/ repair
costs.
Post-tensioned slabs-on-ground / industrial floors receive an orthogonal post-tensioning applied
concentrically to the slab. Except along the slab edges there is no non-prestressed reinforcement
at all. The post-tensioned floors are typically placed on plastic sheets to reduce friction between
slab and ground, Fig. 13. The post-tensioned floors have only few but well-designed expansion
joints. Detailing and the quality of concreting works are important to avoid cracking of the floors
during the first few hours and days after concreting. An early application of the post-tensioning
through partial stressing of the tendons before twelve hours after concreting is recommended.
Well designed and constructed post-tensioned slabs-on-ground and industrial floors perform
exceptionally well in practice. They are competitive with other construction methods when life-
cycle costing is considered due to their low maintenance costs.
Similar comments as to slabs-on-ground apply also to post-tensioned concrete pavements for
highways and airports.

2.3. Precast segmental bridges:

Precast segmental construction has taken a dominating role in concrete bridge
construction in particular for large scale and fast-track projects. Although introduced in France
already begin of the 1960’s, the construction method made its real break-through only after the
successful introduction into the USA with the large scale projects in Florida in the early 1980’s.
Precast segmental bridge decks, mostly box girders with internal and / or external post-
tensioning tendons, have since become a preferred construction method up to spans of about
100-120m. Short-line match casting of segments permits to follow almost any bridge deck
alignment even in very constrained space in urban areas. Precast box girders are competitive and
are now preferred over precast beam solutions in many parts of the world. Without the
availability of precast segmental construction technology, many of todays fast-track urban
projects would likely be built in steel.
Figure.5. presents some selected precast segmental road bridges built over the last few years.
While in the past, precast segmental construction was almost exclusively used for highway
bridges, more recently some notable examples of railway bridges were constructed. These
examples include many light rail structures built in urban areas. However, precast segmental
construction was also used for high speed railway structures. Figure.6. presents some examples
of railway bridges.

a) Telok Blangah Project, Singapore b) Oakland Bay Bridge, San Francisco / USA

Figure 5: Precast segmental highway bridges

 a) Metro Project, Santiago/Chile b) Avignon TGV Viaducts, France
Figure 6: Precast segmental rail bridges

Despite the successful use of precast segmental construction in many countries, some owners and
engineers remained reluctant to use this construction method. This was mainly due to some
reservations on the use of external tendons, in general.

2.4. Extradosed segmental bridges:

The maximum span range of precast segmental bridges is limited to about 100-
120m. This span range can be extended for specific spans of a project without necessarily
changing the depth of the deck by the use of extradosed tendons. Extradosed tendons are external
tendons placed outside of the envelope of the box girder somewhat similar to stay cables but
typically at a shallower inclination to the deck. Extradosed segmental bridges therefore, have a
relatively stiff deck when compared with typical cable-stayed bridges.
An example of the transition of traditional precast segmental construction into the extradosed
system is the Pakse Bridge in Laos, Fig.7. The new bridge was at the time of construction only
the second crossing of the Mekong river in the country. The bridge has a precast segmental deck
with 102 m typical spans, and an extradosed main span of 143 m, all erected by balanced
cantilever construction with an overhead gantry.

Figure 7: Pakse extradosed bridge, Laos

It is the author’s expectation that we will see more extradosed bridge construction in the future.
Recommendations for the design of extradosed structures and for extradosed tendons are being
prepared by several organisations, including fib.

2.5. Concrete containment and sto rage structures:

Prestressed concrete has been used since long successfully for the construction of
storage structures such as silos, water reservoirs and LNG/LPG tanks. There has also been a
large number of prestressed concrete containment structures built in the 1970’s and 80’s for
nuclear power plants.
Today’s demand for energy will also bring needs for more storage structures. Prestressed
concrete is extremely suitable and economical to satisfy the needs either on-shore or off-shore.
With the increase of steel prices, floating concrete storage structures, such as the N’Kossa Barge,
Fig. 8, or similar structures may become again economically interesting.

Figure 8: N’Kossa Barge, France

The construction of a large number of nuclear power plants has been announced all around the
world. Prestressed concrete will be the preferred construction technology for many of these
structures. The trend in the prestressed containments is to larger post-tensioning tendons up to 55
strands 0.6”.

3. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION: -

After a brief review of new developments in materials and specific technologies for structured
concrete, trends in selected applications have been discussed. In view of the present trends in
material cost, energy demand and needs for sustainable construction, the author sees a very
promising future for prestressed concrete construction.
 REFERENCES
[1] BEHLOUL, M.; GANZ, H.R. - Innovative concrete in Seoul Seonyu footbridge. Proceedings,
Conference, Pune, India, 2003.

[2] ISO 6935-2. Steel for the reinforcement of concrete – Part 2: Ribbed bars. International
Organization for Standardization (ISO), Geneva, Switzerland, 2007.

[3] fib Bulletin 26. Influence of material and processing on stress corrosion cracking of prestressing
steel – case studies. Technical report. International Federation for Structural Concrete (fib), Lausanne,
Switzerland, 2003.

[4] Guideline for European technical approval of post-tensioning kits for prestressing of structures,
ETAG 013. European Organisation for Technical Approvals (EOTA), Brussels, Belgium, 2002.

[5] POSER, M.; TRAUTE, M.; MELLIER, E.; GANZ, H.R. - CE-marked post-tensioning kits. Paper. VSL
International Ltd., Berne, Switzerland, 2008.