Factors affecting the external prestressing stress in externally strengthened prestressed concrete beams

Abstract

The wide use of external prestressing system to strengthen reinforced and prestressed concrete members requires the full understanding of the behaviour of the strengthened members. At ultimate the stress in the external prestressing tendons need to be known in order to calculate the ultimate strength of the strengthened member. Several factors that can influence the increase in the ultimate stress in steel external prestressing tendons have been studied and well understood while the effect of these factors on tendons made from fibre reinforced plastics needs more research. This research was carried out to study the effect of several factors on the increase in the ultimate stress in external Parafil ropes as well as external steel tendons. These factors were related to the external prestressing system, internal prestressed and ordinary bonded steel, beam geometry and material properties. Also, the accuracy of equations proposed by the Eurocode (EC2), ACI318 and BS8110 to calculate the ultimate stress in external steel and FRP prestressing tendons was examined. The experimental and the analytical results showed that the studied factors have the same effect on both steel (up to yield) and Parafil ropes though this effect is greater in case of steel tendons. Also, factors such as tendon profile (straight or deviated), high strength of the concrete, effective tendon depth, number of deviators should be taken into consideration when calculating the ultimate stress in the external tendons.