Analysis of Section for Flexure

• IF prestress force F is applied at the centroid of concrete section and

if the section under consideration is sufficiently far from the point of
application of prestress, then from Saint Venant’s Principle:

• For a post tensioned member, when the prestress in the steel is

transferred from bulkhead to the concrete as in following figure:
then stresses in the concrete is, considering transformed section At
• This is exact formula. But usually we use the following approximate
equation to estimate the elastic shortening loss:
• Both transformed and gross section may be used. But the error for
using gross section is negligible.
Stresses in Concrete due to loads:
• As prestress is applied in the beam, stress in the steel changes from A to B (stress
level f0).
• As falsework is removed, the beam carries its own weight, deflect downward and
stress in the steel is increased from B to C.
• If the girder load is small, the beam may bow up when the prestress level is
somewhere at B/. The beam will start to carry its own weight as it will be
separated from the false work due to bowing up and will reach C/.
• C/ will be less than f0 as there would be loss of prestress due to bowing up of
beam.
• Loss of prestress would occur over time. However, if we consider those losses to
happen at this stage, stress in the steel will drop to the level of D representing
effective prestress force of fe.
• As load are applied over beam it will bend downward and the there would be
increase in steel stress from D to E i.e. working load level. For bonded beam such
increase may be calculated using following formula:

• Where I, y, corresponds to the transformed section. n is modular ratio.

• When load is increased beyond point E, the stress in the steel will
increase linear elastically up to point F where the beam cracks.
• When the section cracks, there is sudden increase in steel stress from
F to F/ for bonded beam.
• After cracking stress in the steel will increase in a faster rate if load is
increased and will reach the ultimate load point G for bonded beam.
• Stress level at G is close to but slightly below the ultimate steel
strength of fu .
• Between point F/ and G, there is a point at which steel ceases to be
elastic. So, a structure may be loaded up to that point to avoid
permanent damage.
• When the beam is unbonded, stress in the steel would be different (lower)
from bonded beam.
• This is because when beam bends the steel slips with respect to concrete.
At the section of maximum moment, the stresses would be lower because
any strain in an unbonded tendon will be distributed throughout its entire
length due to this slip. Stresses throughout the tendon would be averaged
but would be lower than peak stress in a bonded tendon.
• After cracks have developed in unbonded beam, stress in the steel
increases more rapidly with the load but again, it does not increase as fast
as that in the maximum moment section in similar bonded beam. In an
unbonded beam it not possible to develop ultimate strength in steel
tendon before beam rupture. Thus the stress curve goes from F1/ to G1 with
G1 below G by appreciable amount.
• There is tendency of unbonded beam to develop large cracks before failure.
These large cracks tend to concentrate strain at some localized section of
the concrete thus lowering ultimate strength.
• Therefore, strength of unbonded beam may be appreciably increased by
the addition of non prestressed bonded reinforcement which tend to
spread the cracks and limit their sizes. Non prestressed reinforcement also
contribute in taking tension.
• To determine average strain in unbonded tendon, it necessary to determine the
total lengthening of the tendon due to moments at different section in the beam
which can be done by integrating strain over the entire length. If M is moment at
any point, the unit strain at that point in concrete is given by:
x

h 1‐

y
• Cracking Moment:
• Like RC beam, a prestressed concrete beam will crack when its extreme
fiber tensile stress would become equal to modulus of rupture, fr which
may be taken as 7.5√f/c.