TECHNICAL ELECTIVE

1 (PRESTRESSED
CONCRETE DESIGN)
CEPROC2
BASIC CONCEPTS OF PRESTRESSED
CONCRETE
• Learning Outcomes: The students will be able to
understand the main concepts of prestressed
concrete, its history, application, the materials
used in prestressing, and the code limitations
and provisions governing the design and analysis
of general structures including prestressed
concrete.
Summary of the topics:
• Introduction to Prestressed Concrete
• History of Prestressing on terms of use
• Loads and Building Codes
• Structural Integrity and Sustainability
• Application of Prestressed Concrete
• Materials Used in Prestressing
• INTRODUCTION TO PRESTRESSED CONCRETE
Prestressing
the precompression of a structure, before the
application of the service loads, so as to improve
its performance in specific ways.
*the most common application is in the design of
structural concrete.
Structural concrete is essentially a compression
material
It can withstand great amount of compressive
stress but disadvantageous when it comes in
resisting tensile stress due to its weak strength in
tension
Structural concrete is very brittle and is prone to
cracks when subjected to great amount of service
load
In designing a concrete structure, one criterion is the
use of the ultimate strength of concrete.
Ultimate strength is the maximum stress that a
material can withstand while being stretched (due to
tensile stress) or pulled before breaking.
It means that in worst case scenario, the structures
should not collapse and before failure of any concrete
structure, cracks are formed due to the gradual
deflection of the concrete caused by the great amount
of service load.
Cracks also allow water to penetrate the structural
concrete which causes corrosion of the steel
reinforcements and weaken its strength to resist tensile
stress.

In order to avoid cracking, gradual deflection of

structural concrete, and increase the strength of the
concrete to resist tensile stresses, prestressing is done.
The basic principle of prestressed concrete is that, high-
strength tensioned steel will be applied in the high-
strength concrete in such a manner that it will minimize
the tensile stress produced by the service loads. The
precompression applied (may be axial or eccentric) will
induce the compressive stress below the neutral axis or as
a whole structural concrete resulting to no tension or pure
compression. With this principle of precompression of
concrete, the number and width of cracks can be limited
to the desired degree. Of equal importance, the deflection
of the member may be controlled.
By crack and deflection control at service
loads, prestressing makes it possible to
employ economical and efficient high tensile
strength steel reinforcement and high
strength concrete which also makes it more
advantageous compared to ordinary
reinforced concrete.
HISTORY OF PRESTRESSING IN
TERMS OF USE
1.Hoops on Barrels
The metal bands around the
barrel induce a state of initial
hoop compression to counteract
the hoop tension caused by the
fitting liquid in the barrels
2. Pre-tensioning of spokes in a bicycle wheel
The pre-tension is applied to the spoke to such an
extent that there will always be a residual tension
in the spoke.
3. Early 1800’s
• Earliest recognized use of cast iron. Cast iron was excellent for load-
bearing purposes, such as columns or bridge piers, and for engine
parts.
4. Henry Bessemer (1858)
• The Father of the steel industry
• Bessemer's famous one-step process for producing cheap, high-
quality steel made it possible for engineers to envision
transcontinental railroads, sky-scraping office towers, bay-spanning
bridges, unsinkable ships, and mass-produced horseless carriages.
• Introduce the use of mild steel as structural steel.
5. P.H. Jackson
• Granted the first patent in 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.
• Used prestressed concrete for pavement
construction.
6. Eugene Freyssinet 
- A brilliant structural designer and
bridge builder who first used
prestressing technique on bridges.
- Earliest work is the Plougastel bridge
in France
7. Gustave Magnel
• Wrote the first book of design in prestressed concrete,
communicating his idea to designers worldwide.
• He built the legendary Walnut Lane Bridge in Philadelphia, which
revolutionized prestressed concrete in America
8. Urlich Finsterwalder
• The German bridge builder and designer, was
revolutionizing the construction means and methods for
prestressed concrete bridges.
• He 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.
9. H. Von Emperger and Paul Abeles
• Introduce the use of partial prestressing on
concrete.
• Mild reinforcing steel in ordinary concrete with a
small number of prestressed high strength steel
wires.
• LOADS AND BUILDING CODES
1. Dead load – floor systems, ceilings, roofings,
curds, railings, and other permanent attachment
2. Live loads – occupancy loads in buildings,
vehicular loads in bridges
3. Environmental loads – rain, soil pressure, wind
and earthquake.
• Building Codes That is Commonly used Worldwide:
1. International Building Code (IBC) – compilation of
occupancy, life-safety considerations and building
functional requirements.
2. American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) – defines
occupancy and environmental loads in buildings.
3. American Concrete Institute (ACI) – material
building costs.
STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY AND SUSTAINABILITY
Structural integrity addresses the behavior of the
structure to prevent or limit progressive collapse or
disproportionate collapse of a structure when subjected
to extreme loadings.
STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY AND SUSTAINABILITY
Sustainability is defined as a requirement of our generation to
manage resources such that the average quality of life that we
ensure ourselves can potentially be shared by all future
generations. Prestressed concrete, using high performance
reinforcement and higher strength concrete, implies that strength
conditions can be satisfied with less material. As such,
prestressed concrete supports overall sustainability objectives.
Sustainability also considers the resilience of the structure.
Prestressed concrete structures are often candidates for
repurposing due to their adaptability to new uses.
APPLICATIONS OF PRESTRESSED
CONCRETE
Bridges
Slabs in buildings
MATERIALS USED IN PRESTRESSED CONCRETE
• High Strength Concrete
• Concrete itself is a composite material. The basic
components of the concrete mix are water,
Portland cement, and aggregates (rock and sand).
Mechanical Properties of concrete relevant to prestressed
concrete design:
• Compressive Strength - the capacity of a material or structure
to withstand loads tending to reduce size, as opposed to which
withstands loads tending to elongate.
• Modulus of Elasticity (Young’s Modulus) – mechanical property
of material that describes its stiffness (or resistance of material
to elastic deformation)
• Modulus of Rupture - an ultimate strength pertaining to the
failure of beams by flexure equal to the bending moment at
rupture divided by the section modulus of the beam.
The properties of concrete which one should be
familiar with before attempting to make use
Prestressed concrete design are:
• Compressive strength
• Character of the stress-strain relationship
• Modulus of elasticity
• Defects in concrete (creep and shrinkage)
• Creep – time dependent increase in deformation due to
sustained loading can occur in all types of loading
(compression, tension, and torsion). The earlier the age
at which loading is applied the larger the creep. Creep is
higher in wet conditions than in dry conditions.
• Shrinkage – Associated with the loss of moisture from
gel particles of the paste.
Points to recall about reinforced concrete:
• Concrete is strong in compression but weak in tension
• Steel is strong in tension (as well as in compression)
• Reinforced concrete uses concrete to resist compression
and to hold the steel bars in place, and uses steel to
resist all of the tension
• Tensile strength of concrete is neglected (zero)
• Reinforced concrete beam always crack under service
load
• High Strength Steel
• Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon containing less
than 2% carbon and 1% manganese and small
amounts of silicon, phosphorus, sulfur and oxygen.
Steel is the world's most important engineering
and construction material.
Forms of Prestressing Steel
• Wires – prestressing wire is a single unit made of steel.
The nominal diameters of wires are 2.5, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 7.0
and 8.0 mm.
• Strands – a few wires are spun together in a helical form to form a
prestressing strand. The different types of strands are dependent to the
number of wires spun together.
-Two wire strand
-Three wire strand
-Seven wire strand
– six wires
are spun
around a central wire. The central wire
is larger than the other wires
• Tendon – A group of strands or wires that are bound to form a
prestressing tendon. The tendons are used in post-tensioned members
• Cable – A group of tendons form a prestressing cable. The cables are used
in bridges.
• Bars – A tendon can be made up of a single steel bar. The diameter of a
bar is much larger than that of a wire.
Properties of Prestressing Steel:
• High strength steel – a steel that has a very high yield strength of 210 – 550
MPa
• Adequate ductility
Ductility is the physical property of a material associated with the ability to be
hammered thin or stretched into wire without breaking. 
• High Bond (required for pre-tensioned members)
• Low relaxation to reduces losses
Relaxation of steel – The decrease in stress in steel as a result of decreased in
strain of the steel, such as results from shrinkage and creep of the concrete in
prestressed concrete unit.
• Minimum Corrosion