Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Overview of External Post-Tensioning in Bridges
Overview of External Post-Tensioning in Bridges
1. INTRODUCTION
The rapid growth in the weight and volume of heavy vehicles has resulted in continuous
increase in the design loads for the bridge structures in recent years. Because of this, many of
existing bridges are considered inadequate to meet the current design load requirement.
Consequently, the deterioration of the existing bridges due to exposure to adverse
environmental conditions and structural aging has become a major problem today.
Combination of these factors has resulted in either imposing weight restriction on these
bridges or upgrading the existing bridges to satisfy the increased loads.
Various methods for bridge rehabilitation are currently available including the replacement of
damaged or under-strength members or components, addition of structural material using
steel or reinforced concrete jackets, bonded steel plates, etc. Two methods that are currently
proving to be very useful in increasing the capacity of short and medium span bridges are
plate bonding (either fibre reinforced plastic (FRP) laminates or steel plates) and external
post-tensioning (1). These methods can be applied to a wide range of structures. This paper
focuses on the use of external post-tensioning, and presents some applications in new and
existing bridges.
Deviator Blocks
Diaphragm Anchorage
high tensile bars. In a few cases, the stress is applied using more unconventional techniques.
For example, stress in a tendon can be developed by anchoring a straight tendon in place and
imposing a deflection at mid-span. The deflection is then retained by fixing the deflected
point. Prestress can also be developed by applying a load to impose a deflection in the deck
prior to anchoring the tendons or bars. An extension on the use of external tendons is to place
them at large eccentricities. This is possible only when external prestressing is used, since the
tendons need not be arranged within the concrete section (Figure 2).
End Anchorage
External Tendon
Deviator
End Anchorage
Deviator
Large Eccentric External Tendon
reduction of self-weight of about 25% can be achieved in this kind of structures, compared to
conventional prestressed concrete box-girder bridges. Number of bridges with corrugated
steel webs has been constructed worldwide. Some examples of such bridges constructed with
this technique are discussed below.
Upper concrete slab
The above application illustrates the ongoing development to improve grouting issues related
with internal and external bonded tendons. It is expected with improved protection to steel
external tendons, the use of this technology will become more popular.
(Source: http://www.co.multnomah.or.us/)
A similar project was carried out to strengthen the headstock of the Tenthill Creek Bridge
located in Gatton, Queensland (Figure 14). Heavy transportation across the Tenthill Creek
Bridge has caused some shear cracking in the headstocks. The headstock was strengthened by
external post-tensioning. The shear cracks were properly repaired with epoxy injection prior
to the external post-tensioning to achieve maximum efficiency of the strengthening. It is
envisaged this type of strengthening will be used more in the near future for headstock
strengthening.
4.3 Rehabilitation with Lightweight Concrete
The deck of the Puttesund Bridge in Norway was rehabilitated by replacing concrete
sidewalks with aluminium, replacing portions of slabs and surfacing with lightweight
concrete, and installing external prestressing (7). The main purpose of the use of the light
weight concrete is to reduce the weight of the span. This bridge was originally constructed in
1970 as cable stayed bridge and rehabilitated in 2002 to extend its life according to current
demand.
It is evident that the external post-tensioning is a viable technology for new bridges that
had resulted in the construction of several innovative bridge including composite bridges,
bridges with large eccentric tendons and bridges using lightweight concrete.
This technology has been successfully used for flexural and shear strengthening of
existing bridges in many part of the world.
While this technology is viable, there is need for further research especially in the area of
shear strengthening of members such as headstocks with existing cracks.
While the adoption of external post-tensioning technology in Australia has been limited,
the authors believe that the trend will improve with further research and development of
this technology. Such development could lead to sustainable bridge management in
Australia.
7. REFERENCES
1. Daly AF, Witarnawan IW. A Method for Increasing the Capacity of Short and Medium
Span Bridges. In: 10th REAAA (Road Engineering Association of Asia and Australasia)
Conference; 2000 September 4-9; Tokyo, Japan; 2000.
2. Tan KH, Ng CK. Effect of Shear in Externally Prestressed Beams. ACI Structural Journal
1998; 95(2):116-128.
3. Virlogeux M. External Prestressing Historical and Modern Applications. In: Conti E,
Foure B, editors. Workshop on Behaviour of External Prestressing in Structures; 1993
June 9-12; France; 1993. p. 13-42.
4. Rabbat BG, Sowlat K. Testing of Segmental Concrete Girders with External Tendons.
PCI Journal 1987; 32(2):86-107.
5. Miyamoto A, Tei K, Nakamura H, Bull JW. Behavior of Prestressed Beam Strengthened
with External Tendons. Journal of Structural Engineering 2000; 126(9):1033-1044.
6. Aravinthan T, Hamada Y, Uehira K. Advances in Prestressed Concrete Bridges with
External Prestressing. In: Hancock GJ, Bradford MA, Wilkinson TJ, Uy B, Rasmussen
KJR, editors. Advances in Structures: Steel, Concrete, Composite and Aluminium
(ASSCCA); 2003 June 22-25; Sydney, Australia: A.A. Balkema Publishers; 2003. p. 841846.
7. NCHRP. Crossing Chasms: Concrete Segmental and Cable-Stayed Bridges Do the Job,
and Do It Well. TranScan 2002 Spring: 1-3.
8. Aravinthan T, Heldt T. Innovative Strengthening Technique Using Prestressed Fibre
Wraps for Bridge Headstocks. In: Australian Structural Engineering Conference 2005;
2005 September 11-14; Newcastle, Australia; 2005.
9. Naaman AE, Alkhairi FM. Stress at Ultimate in Unbonded Post-Tensioning Tendons:
Part 2 - Proposed Methodology. ACI Structural Journal 1992; 88(6):683-692.
10. Naaman AE, Burns N, French C, Gamble WL, Mattock AH. Stresses in Unbonded
Prestressing Tendons at Ultimate: Recommendation. ACI Structural Journal 2002;
99(4):518-529.
11. Alkhairi FM, Naaman AE. Analysis of Beams Prestressed with Unbonded Internal or
External Tendons. Journal of Structural Engineering 1993;119(9):2680-2700.
12. Burns NH, Helwig T, Tsujimoto T. Effective Prestress Force in Continuous PostTensioned Beams with Unbonded Tendons. ACI Structural Journal 1991;88(1):84-90.
13. Aravinthan T, Sabonchy E, Heldt T. Application of External Post-tensioning for
Strengthening of Headstocks (Bent-Caps) in Bridges. In: OH MH, editor. 4th
International Conference on Concrete under Severe Conditions: Environment and
Loading; 2004 June 20-23; Seoul, South Korea; 2004. p. 1737-1744.
14. Harajli MH. Strengthening of Concrete Beams by External Prestressing. PCI Journal
1993; 38(6):76-88.
15. ACI Committee E706. Structural Crack Repair by Epoxy Injection: American Concrete
Institute; 2003. Report No.: ACI RAP-1.
10