• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.32 no.2
• /
• pp.180-190
• /
• 2000

In this study, nonlinear analyses of prestressed concrete(PSC) test beams for inservice inspection of prestressed concrete containments for CANDU nuclear power plants are presented. In the analysis the material nonlinearities of concrete, rebar and prestressing steel are used. To reduce the numerical instability with respect to the used finite element mesh size, the tension stiffening effect has been considered. For concrete, the tensile stress-strain relationship derived from tests is modified and the stress-strain curve of rebar is assumed as a simple bilinear model. The stress-strain curve of prestressing steel is applied as a multilineal curve with the first straight line up to 0.8fpu. To prove the validity of the applied material models, the behavior and strength of the PSC test specimens tested to failure have been evaluated. A reasonable agreement between the experimental results and the predictions is obtained. Parametric studies on the tension stiffening effects, the impact of prestressing losses with time, and the compressive strength of concrete have been conducted.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
• /
• v.9 no.3
• /
• pp.135-143
• /
• 2007

The pavement system constructed by tieing a number of precast concrete slabs employing prestressing techniques is called the precast prestressed concrete pavement. The behavior of this type of pavement system under post-tensioning was analyzed using a finite element model. First, the optimal number of anchors was determined by investigating the distribution of compressive stresses in the pavement system due to post-tensioning. Then, the effects of the parameters such as the horizontal resistance of underlying layers, the pavement length, the slab thickness, and the bearing area of the anchorage on the distribution of compressive stresses were analyzed. The horizontal resistance of underlying layers induced the loss of compressive stresses, and the loss increased in the middle of the pavement. As the pavement length increased or the slab thickness decreased, the stress loss due to the horizontal resistance of underlying layers became larger. However, the bearing area of the anchorage where the compressive forces were applied did not much affect the distribution of compressive stresses.

• International journal of steel structures
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.1336-1349
• /
• 2018

Generally, a precast prestressed concrete (PSC) beam is used as girders for short-to-medium span (less than 30 m) bridges due to the advantages of simple design and construction, reduction of construction budget, maintenance convenience. In order to increase the span length beyond 50 m of precast PSC girder, PSC hollow box girder with unbonded prestressed H-type steel beam placed at the compressive region is proposed. The unbonded compressive prestressing in the H-type steel beams in the girder is made to recover plastic deflection of PSC girder when the pre-stressing is released. Also, the H-steel beams allow minimization of depth-to-length ratio of the girder by reducing the compressive region of the cross-section, thereby reducing the weight of the girder. A quasi-static 3-point bending test with 4 different loading steps is performed to verify safety and plastic deflection recovery of the girder. The experimental results showed that the maximum applied load exceeded the maximum design load and most of the plastic deflection was recovered when the compressive prestressing of H-type steel beams is released. Also using prestressed H-type steel as compression reinforcements in the upper part of cross section, repair and restoration difficulty and cost of PSC girders should be significantly reduced. The study result and analysis are discussed in detail in the paper.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
• /
• 2005.11a
• /
• pp.57-60
• /
• 2005

The objective of this paper is to investigate and analyze the behaviour of prestressed I section structural members constructed with ultra high perfomance steel fiber reinforced cementitious concrete (SFR-UHPC). This material is known as reactive powder concrete (RPC) mixed with domestic materials and its compressive strength is over 150MP. The parameters of test specimens were span to depth ratio, prestressing force, prestressing wire placement and web width. Most influential parameter to determine the failure mode between shear and flexural action was proved to be shear span ratio. The characteristics of ultra high-strength concrete is basically brittle, but due to the steel fiber reinforcement behaviour of this structure member became ductile after the peak load. As a result of the test, the stress block of compressive zone should be redefined. The proposed analytical calculation of internal force capacity based by plastic analysis gave a good prediction for the shear and flexural strength of specimens. The numerical verification of the finite element model which constitutive law developed for Mode I fracture of fiber reinforced concrete correctly captured the overall behaviour of the specimens tested.

• Computers and Concrete
• /
• v.21 no.6
• /
• pp.607-622
• /
• 2018

A non-linear finite element model (FEM) was constructed using a three-dimensional software (ATENA-3D) to investigate the effect of strengthening on the behavior of prestressed hollow-core (PHC) slabs with or without openings. The slabs were strengthened using near surface mounted (NSM)-carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) strips. The constructed model was validated against experimental results that were previously reported by the authors. The validated FEM was then used to conduct an extensive parametric study to examine the influence of prestressing reinforcement ratio, compressive strength of concrete and strengthening reinforcement ratio on the behavior of such slabs. The FEM results showed good agreement with the experimental results where it captured the cracking, yielding, and ultimate loads as well as the mid-span deflection with a reasonable accuracy. Also, an overall enhancement in the structural performance of these slabs was achieved with an increase in prestressing reinforcement ratio, compressive strength of concrete, external reinforcement ratio. The presence of openings with different dimensions along the flexural or shear spans reduced significantly the capacity of the PHC slabs. However, strengthening these slabs with 2 and 4 (64 and $128mm^2$ that represent reinforcement ratios of 0.046 and 0.092%) CFRP strips was successful in restoring the original strength of the slab and enhancing post-cracking stiffness and load carrying capacity.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
• /
• v.21 no.4
• /
• pp.47-52
• /
• 2017

PSC (Prestressed Concrete) structures have been used widely for its engineering advantage with using total concrete area as effective compressive section. However tendon inside is exposed to such a high tensile stress that and more attentions should be paid for corrosion control. This work is for changing corrosion current and ultimate strength in tendon with increasing prestressing force in a constant corrosive condition. With increasing prestressing force, corrosion current, corrosion amount, and ultimate load are changed linearly. When prestressing force increases from 20.0 % to 40.0 %, corrosion current increases to 124.4 % and 168.0 % and ultimate load decreases to 87.8 % and 78.4 %, respectively. With inducing constant electrical potential, increasing corrosion current and reduction of strength are evaluated to be linearly related with increasing prestressing load.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
• /
• v.16 no.3 s.81
• /
• pp.293-302
• /
• 2004

The transfer of prestress force in pretensioned prestressed concrete (PSC) members is of great concern because it affects directly the distribution of stress around the transfer zone. The design provision of current design code on the transfer length considers only the prestress intensity and the diameter of prestressing steels. However, other factors such as concrete compressive strength and concrete cover may affect greatly the transfer length. The purpose of the present paper is to explore the various factors that affect the transfer length in pretensioned PSC members. The bond stress-slip relation between prestressing steel and concrete was modeled first from experimental data and then this model was incorporated into the interface element. The interface element was used to perform the finite element analysis for pretensioned PSC members. The results indicate that the compressive strength and concrete cover are also very important parameters which affect the transfer length greatly. This means that the current design code, which considers only the effective prestress and diameter of prestressing steel, must be improved to take into account the other important variables of compressive strength and concrete cover. The present study allows more realistic analysis and design of pretensioned PSC members.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.26 no.2
• /
• pp.211-229
• /
• 2007

An experimental investigation to determine the transfer length of a seven-wire prestressing strand in different concretes is presented in this paper. A testing technique based on the analysis of bond behaviour by means of measuring the force supported by the prestressing strand on a series of specimens with different embedment lengths has been used. An analytical bond model to calculate the transfer length from an inelastic bond stress distribution along the transfer length has been obtained. A relationship between the plastic bond stress for transfer length and the concrete compressive strength at the time of prestress transfer has been found. An equation to predict the average and both the lower bound and the upper bound values of transfer length is proposed. The experimental results have not only been compared with the theoretical prediction from proposed equations in the literature, but also with experimental results obtained by several researchers.

• Earthquakes and Structures
• /
• v.9 no.2
• /
• pp.339-352
• /
• 2015

Ancient masonry towers constitute a relevant part of the cultural heritage of humanity. Their earthquake protection is a topic of great concern among researchers due to the strong damage suffered by these brittle and massive structures through the history. The identification of the seismic behavior and failure of towers under seismic loading is complex. This strongly depends on many factors such as soil characteristics, geometry, mechanical properties of masonry and heavy mass, as well as the earthquake frequency content. A deep understanding of these aspects is the key for the correct seismic vulnerability evaluation of towers and to design the most suitable retrofitting measure. Recent tendencies on the seismic retrofitting of historical structures by means of prestressing are related to the use of smart materials. The most famous cases of application of prestressing in towers were discussed. Compared to horizontal prestressing, vertical post-tensioning is aimed at improving the seismic behavior of towers by reducing damage with the application of an overall distribution of compressive stresses at key locations.

• Proceedings of the Korea Concrete Institute Conference
• /
• 2002.05a
• /
• pp.501-506
• /
• 2002

The unbonded prestressed concrete(PSC) members exhibit very different structural behavior from that of bonded PSC members because of having different tendon stress increment. Recently, AASHTO changed the provision of ultimate tendon stress with unbonded tendons, because some researches tried to improve the provision of ultimate tendon stress with unbonded tendons. The purpose of the present study is to compare various Codes with the ultimate failure stresses of prestressing(PS) steels for the unbonded PSC members. To this end, Some national Codes have been collected and analyzed. A series of major influencing variables have been included in the analysis. It was found that the span-depth ratio, neutral axis depth-effective depth ratio, concrete compressive strength, effective prestress, and prestressing steel ratio have great influence on the ultimate failure stress of PS steel in unbonded PSC members. The Comparison indicates that existing formulas including ACI and domestic Code's equations shows some unwarranties. The present study allows more realistic analysis and design of prestressed concrete structures with internal unbonded tendons.