Santos, Kiesha Renee B.

CE133-2 – A06

1. Discuss the basic concepts of pre-stressing and historical development

of pre-stressing concrete.

 There are three basic concepts of prestressing: First Concept:

Prestressing to transform concrete into an Elastic Material. Second
Concept: Prestressing for Combination of High Strength Steel with
Concrete. Third Concept: Prestressing to Achieve load Balancing.

First Concept Prestressing to transform concrete into an Elastic

Material.
Second Concept: Prestressing for Combination of High Strength
Steel with Concrete.
Third Concept: Prestressing to Achieve load Balancing.

 In the year 1904, Freyssinet tried to introduce prestresses in

concrete to resist stresses developed due to external loads. Later,
the concept of prestressing was formulated by Doehring of
Germany and Jackson of United States. Mandl and Koenen were the
first ones to propose a theory for modelling the behaviour of
prestressed members to perform design. Notable work was done by
M. Koenen and Steiner in the area of losses of prestress in
prestressed members. Dischinger demonstrated the use of
unbonded tendons in the year 1928 in the construction of a bridge.
The first major use of prestressing in civil infrastructure in the
United States was the construction of the Walnut Lane Bridge in
Philadelphia in the year 1950. In the last many decades,
prestressed concrete has been widely used in the construction of
long span bridges, railway sleepers, shell roofs, marine structures,
nuclear pressure vessels, water retaining structures, transmission
towers and many other structures.
2. Explain the advantages and disadvantages of pre-stressed concrete

a. Advantages of Pre-stressed Concrete

 Longer span length increases untroubled floor space and parking

facilities.
 Thinner slabs, that are important for high rise building as with
the same amount of cost, it can construct more slabs than
traditional thicker slabs. 
 As the span length is larger, fewer joints are needed than
traditional RC structures. 
 Because of fewer joints, maintenance cost also becomes reduced
during the design life as joints are the major locus of weakness
in a concrete building.
 Long-term Durability. 
 Better finishing of placed concrete. 
 It requires a smaller amount of construction materials. 
 It resists stresses are higher than normal RCC structures and is
free from cracks.

b. Disadvantages of Pre-stressed Concrete

 It requires high strength concrete and high tensile

strength steel wires.
 The main disadvantage is construction requires additional special
equipment like jacks, anchorage, etc. 
 It requires highly skilled workers under skilled supervision. 
 Construction cost is little higher than RCC structures.
3. Discuss the different application of pre-stressed concrete

 Pre-stressed Concrete is used to span large distances which are

not possible through conventional RCC construction. PSC is also
more durable than RCC because it does not crack under load
while RCC is designed to crack. Another reason to use it is to
reduce the overall weight of the structure. Its uses are as
follows:
 Bridges (precast girders, box girders, segmental bridges). In
bridges, PSC is used to increase the possible spans of bridge and
to make the bridge more durable under moving traffic
conditions.
 Post Tensioned Slabs in buildings. PSC is used to reduce the
overall weight of building thereby reducing the seismic forces
and making the building economical. These slabs can also span
larger distances thereby reducing the number of columns in the
building.
 Prestressed Beams and Girders for building construction. These
are used in precast construction like factories and warehouses.
These are durable and can span large distances.