PRESTRESSED

CONCRETE

CE133-2
OUTLINE
PRESTRESSED CONCRETE

High Strength Steel and

Concrete

2 Advantages of Prestressed
Concrete

2
 Need for High Strength
1
Steel and Concrete
CE133-2
The significant observations which
resulted from the pioneering
research on prestressed concrete
were:
1. Necessity of using high-strength
steel and concrete.
2. Recognition of losses of prestress
due to various causes.
The early attempts to use mild steel
The normal loss of stress in steel is
generally about 100 to 240 N/mm2
and it is apparent that if this loss of
stress is to be a small portion of the
initial stress, the stress in steel in the
initial stages must be very high, about
1200 to 2000 N/mm2. These high
stress ranges are possible only with
the use of high strength steel.
Characteristics of High Strength Concrete
• High resistance in tension, shear, bond and bearing.
• In the zone of anchorages, the bearing stresses being higher,
in prestressed concrete were not
high-strength concrete is invariably preferred to minimize costs.
successful, as a working stress of 120 • Less liable to shrinkage cracks
N/mm2 in mild steel is more or less
• Higher Modulus of Elasticity
completely lost due to elastic
deformation, creep and shrinkage of
• Smaller Ultimate Creep Strain resulting to smaller loss of
concrete. prestress in steel.
• Reduction of cross-sectionial dimensions of prestressed concrete
structural elements
• With a reduced deadweight/selfweight of the material, longer
spans become technically and economically practical.
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 Advantages of
2 Prestressed Concrete
CE133-2

• In the case of fully prestressed members, which

are free from tensile stresses under working loads,
the cross-section is more efficiently utilized when
compared with a reinforced concrete section
which is cracked under working loads.

• Prestressed concrete members possess improved

resistance to shearing forces, due to the effect of
compressive prestress, which reduces the principal
tensile stress.
o The use of curved cables, particularly in long-span
members, helps to reduce the shear forces developed
at the support sections.

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 Advantages of
2 Prestressed Concrete
CE133-2

• A prestressed concrete flexural member is stiffer under

working loads than a reinforced concrete member of
the same depth. However, after the onset of cracking,
the flexural behaviour of a prestressed member is
similar to that of a reinforced concrete member.

• Prestressing of concrete improves the ability of

the material for energy absorption under impact
loads. The ability to resist repeated working loads
has been proved to be as good in prestressed as in
reinforced concrete.

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 Advantages of
2 Prestressed Concrete
CE133-2

• The economy of prestressed concrete is well

established for long-span structures. In the
long span range, prestressed concrete is
generally more economical than reinforced
concrete and steel.

• Prestressed concrete has considerable resilience due

to its capacity for completely recovering from
substantial effects of overloading without undergoing
any serious damage.
o Since the fatigue strength of prestressed concrete
is comparatively better than that of other
materials, chiefly due to the small stress variations
in prestressing steel, it is recommended for
dynamically loaded structures, such as railway
bridges and machine foundations.