Strength of prestressed concrete beams in torsion

Abstract

An analytical model with tension softening for the prediction of the capacity of prestressed concrete beams under pure torsion and under torsion combined with shear and flexure is introduced. The proposed approach employs bilinear stress-strain relationship with post cracking tension softening branch for the concrete in tension and special failure criteria for biaxial stress states. Further, for the solution of the governing equations a special numerical scheme is adopted which can be applied to elements with practically any cross-section since it utilizes a numerical mapping. The proposed method is mainly applied to plain prestressed concrete elements, but is also applicable to prestressed concrete beams with light transverse reinforcement. The aim of the present work is twofold; first, the validation of the approach by comparison between experimental results and analytical predictions and second, a parametrical study of the influence of concentric and eccentric prestressing on the torsional capacity of concrete elements and the interaction between torsion and shear for various levels of prestressing. The results of this investigation presented in the form of interaction curves, are compared to experimental results and code provisions.