Research on Stress Increase of Unbonded Tendons at Ultimate in Prestressed Concrete Continuous Beams

Abstract

Rational evaluation for stress increase of unbonded tendon at ultimate is the basis to exactly compute flexural load bearing capacity of unbonded prestressed concrete beams. Moment-curvature nonlinear analysis method is adopted to compile programs for calculating stress increase at ultimate in unbonded prestressed continuous beams. The precision of the method is proved by comparing results of 16 experimental two-span unbonded prestressed continuous beams to the prediction value of stress increase at ultimate. Based on the simulation analysis, law of the influence of some basic factors to stress increase at ultimate in unbonded tendons in continuous beams is obtained, such as non-prestressed reinforcement index, prestressed reinforcement index, ratio of span to depth and loading type. Then formulas for calculating stress increase at ultimate in unbonded tendons in prestressed concrete continuous beams were established.