Prestressed and Precast Concrete

Spring 2020 – Eng. Amthal Hakim

Chapter 4: Prestress Losses

1
Outlines
4.1. Introduction
4.2. Types of Losses
4.3. Short term Losses: Elastic Shortening (ES)
APPLICATION 3
APPLICATION 4
4.4. Short term Losses: Friction Losses (F)
APPLICATION 5
4.5. Short term Losses: Anchorage Slip (A)
4.6. Long term Losses: Creep (CR)
APPLICATION 6
4.7. Long term Losses: Shrinkage (SH)
APPLICATION 7
4.8. Long term Losses: Steel Relaxation (R)
APPLCATION 8
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4.1. Introduction
• In prestressed concrete applications, most important variable is the prestress.
• Prestress does not remain constant and reduces with time.
• Even during prestressing of tendons, and transfer of prestress, there is a drop of prestress from
the initially applied stress.
• Reduction of prestress is nothing but the loss in prestress.
• Early attempts to produce prestressed concrete was not successful due to loss of prestress
transferred to concrete after few years.
• Prestress loss is nothing but the reduction of initial applied prestress to an effective value.
• In other words, loss in prestress is the difference between initial prestress and the effective
prestress that remains in a member.
• Loss of prestress is a great concern since it affects the strength of member and also
significantly affects the member’s serviceability including stresses in concrete, cracking,
camber and deflection.

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4.2. Types of Losses
Loss of prestress is classified into two types:
1. Short-Term or Immediate Losses: Immediate losses occur during prestressing of tendons,
and transfer of prestress to concrete member. They may cause:
• elastic shortening of the member,
• friction at the tendon-concrete interface
• slip of the anchorage are the short-term losses.
2. Long-Term or Time Dependent Losses: Time dependent losses occur during service life of
structure. They may cause:
• Creep and Shrinkage of concrete and
• Relaxation of prestressing steel

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4.2. Types of Losses
The equation of losses can be written as follow:

Pretensioned Memebrs:
∆𝑓𝑝𝑇 = ∆𝑓𝑝𝐸𝑆 + ∆𝑓𝑝𝑅 + ∆𝑓𝑝𝐶𝑅 + ∆𝑓𝑝𝑆𝐻
Post-tensioned Members:
∆𝑓𝑝𝑇 = ∆𝑓𝑝𝐴 + ∆𝑓𝑝𝐹 + ∆𝑓𝑝𝐸𝑆 + ∆𝑓𝑝𝑅 + ∆𝑓𝑝𝐶𝑅 + ∆𝑓𝑝𝑆𝐻

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4.3. Short term Losses: Elastic Shortening (ES)
• When the tendons are cut and the prestressing force is transferred to the member, the concrete
undergoes immediate shortening due to the prestress.
• The tendon also shortens by the same amount, which leads to the loss of prestress.

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4.3. Short term Losses: Elastic Shortening (ES)
4.3.1. For Pretensionned Beams:

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4.3. Short term Losses: Elastic Shortening (ES)
4.3.2. For Post-tensionned Beams:
• If there is only one tendon, there is no loss because the applied prestress is recorded after the
elastic shortening of the member.
• For more than one tendon, if the tendons are stretched sequentially, there is loss in a tendon
during subsequent stretching of the other tendons.

𝑛
1
∆𝑓𝑝𝐸𝑆 = (∆𝑓𝑝𝐸𝑆 )𝑗
𝑛
𝑗=1
n: number of tendons or pairs of tendons sequentially tensioned
j: number of jacking operations

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APPLICTION 3
A pretensionned prestressed beam has a span of 15.2m (figure in next slide)
For this beam, calculate:
- The concrete fiber stresses at transfer at the centroid of the tendon for the midspan
section of the beam
- The magnitude of loss in prestress due to the effect of elastic shortening of the concrete.
Assume that prior to transfer, the jacking force on the tendon was 75% fpu
Given:
• f’c = 6000 psi
• fpu= 270000 psi
• f’ci= 4500 psi
• Aps = 10 ½ in diameter sever wire strand (9.87 cm2)
• Eps= 27x106 psi

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APPLICTION 3

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APPLICTION 4
Repeat application 3 for a post-tensionned beam and the prestressing operation is such
that:
1- Two tendons are jacked at a time
2- One tendon is jacked at a time
3- All tendons are simultaneously tensioned.

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4.4. Short term Losses: Friction Losses (F)
• For post-tensioned members, the tendons are tensioned members, the tendons are usually
anchored at one end & jacked from the other.
• As the steel slides in the duct during jacking, friction losses take place making the tension at
the anchored end loss than at the jacking end.
• The total friction is the sum of:
1. Curvature friction due to imposed curvature.
2. Wobble friction, due to unintentional misalignment, even in straight tendons.

∆𝒇𝒑𝑭 = 𝒇𝒑𝒊 (𝝁𝜶 + 𝑲𝑳)

8𝑦
𝛼= (𝑖𝑛 𝑟𝑎𝑑)
𝑥

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4.4. Short term Losses: Friction Losses (F)
4.4.1. Curvature friction due to imposed curvature.

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4.4. Short term Losses: Friction Losses (F)
4.4.2. Wobble friction, due to unintentional misalignment, even in straight tendons.

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4.4. Short term Losses: Friction Losses (F)
4.4.3. Wobble and Curvature Friction Coefficients Table

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APPLICATION 5
Assume the alignment characteristics of the tendons in the post-tensioned beam
(Applications 3 and 4) shown below.
If the tendon is made of 7-wire uncoated strands in flexible metal sheathing, compute the
frictional loss of stress in the prestressing wires due to the curvature and wobble effect

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4.5. Short term Losses: Anchorage Slip (A)
• In post-tensioned members, a small amount of force is lost at the anchorage upon transfer, as
the wedges seat themselves on the tendons, or as the hardware deform.
• This magnitude ranges between between 6.35mm & 9.53mm for the two piece mm for the two
piece wedges.
• Similarly, in pretensioned, losses may occur due to slippage at the permanent casting
anchorages, the loss may be compensated by the overstressing.

∆𝐴
∆𝑓𝑝𝐴 = 𝐸𝑝𝑠
𝐿
∆𝐴 = magnitude of slip
L = tendon length
𝐸𝑝𝑠 = modulus of prestressing tendon

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4.6. Long term Losses: Creep (CR)
• The continuous deformation of concrete over extended periods of time & sustained loads is
know as creep.
• The rate of strains increase rapidly at first, but decreases with time until a constant value is
reached
• Creep strains depend on the applied sustained load, mix ratio, curing conditions,
environmental conditions, and the age of concrete when first loaded.
• Prestress loss due to creep at time ‘t’ after prestressing for bonded members is:

𝑬𝒑𝒔
∆𝒇𝒑𝑪𝑹 = 𝑲𝑪𝑹 (𝒇 − (𝒇𝒄𝒔𝒅 )
𝑬𝒄 𝒄𝒔

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4.6. Long term Losses: Creep (CR)
• Prestress loss due to creep at time ‘t’ after prestressing for bonded members is:

𝑬𝒑𝒔
∆𝒇𝒑𝑪𝑹 = 𝑲𝑪𝑹 (𝒇𝒄𝒔 − (𝒇𝒄𝒔𝒅 )
𝑬𝒄
𝐾𝐶𝑅 = 2.0 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑑 𝑚𝑒𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟𝑠
= 1.6 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑡 − 𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑑 𝑚𝑒𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟𝑠
𝑓𝑐𝑠 = stress in concrete at level of steel cgs immediately after transfer .
𝑓𝑐𝑠𝑑 =stress in concrete at level of steel cgs due to all superimposed dead loads applied after
prestressing is accomplished .
𝐾𝐶𝑅 should be reduced by 20% for lightweight concrete.

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APPLICATION 6
Compute the loss in prestress due to creep of the beam shown in application 3 given that
the total superimposed dead loads, excluding the beam’s own weight at transfer, is 375 psf
(5.5 kN/m).

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4.7. Long term Losses: Shrinkage (SH)
• The free water normal concrete mixes evaporates with time, the rate depending on humidity,
temperature, and size and shape of members.
• Drying is accompanied by reduction in volume, the change occurring at higher rate initially.
Approximately 80% of shrinkage occur in the first year.
• Shrinkage of concrete is also defined as the contraction due to loss of moisture.
• Due to the shrinkage of concrete, the prestress in the tendon is reduced with time.
𝑽
∆𝒇𝒑𝑺𝑯 = 𝟖. 𝟐 × 𝟏𝟎−𝟔 𝑲𝑺𝑯 𝑬𝒑𝒔 𝟏 − 𝟎. 𝟎𝟔 (𝟏𝟎𝟎 − 𝑹𝑯)
𝑺
RH= Relative Humidty
𝑉
: Volume to surface ratio inn mm
𝑆

𝐾𝑆𝐻 : factor relating to time from the end of moist curing to application of prestressing in days
𝑲𝑺𝑯 = 1 ( for Pretensioned Members)
Time from end of moist curing 1 3 5 7 10 20 30 60
to application prestress, days
𝑲𝑺𝑯 0.92 0.85 0.80 0.77 0.73 0.64 0.58 0.45
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APPLICATION 7
Compute the loss in prestress due to shrinkage of the beam shown in application 3 given
𝑽
that the relative humidity is RH is 70% and is 2.0 at 7 days.
𝑺
Consider both cases:
1- Pretensioned Beam
2- Post-Tensioned Beam

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4.8. Long term Losses: Steel Relaxation (R)
• Prestressing tendons undergo relaxation under constant length.
• Due to the relaxation of steel, the prestress in the tendon is reduced with time.
• The relaxation depends on the type of steel, initial prestress (fpi) and the duration of the
sustained prestressing force.
𝒍𝒐𝒈 𝒕 𝒇′𝒑𝒊
∆𝒇𝒑𝑹 = 𝒇′𝒑𝒊 − 𝟎. 𝟓𝟓
𝟏𝟎 𝒇𝒑𝒚
𝑓′𝑝𝑖 : Initial stress in steel to which the concrete element is subjected.
𝑓′𝑝𝑖 = (1 − 𝛾) 𝑓𝑝𝑖
𝛾 :percentage loss due to creep and shrinkage over time period
t: time in hours
Pre-tensioned: 𝑓𝑝𝑖 =𝑓𝑝𝑗 − ∆𝑓𝑝𝑅 𝑡0 , 𝑡𝑟 − ∆𝑓𝐸𝑆
Post-Tensioned: 𝑓𝑝𝑖 =𝑓𝑝𝑗 − ∆𝑓𝑝𝐴 − ∆𝑓𝑝𝐹

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APPLICATION 8
Find the relaxation loss in prestress at the end of 5years in example of application 3,
assuming that relaxation loss from jacking to transfer, from elastic shorting, and from
long-term loss due to creep and shrinkage over this period is 20% of the initial prestress.
Assume also that the yield strength, 𝒇𝒑𝒚 = 𝟐𝟑𝟎𝟎𝟎𝟎 psi (1571 MPa), Use 𝒇𝒑𝒊 = 𝟎. 𝟕𝟓𝒇𝒑𝒖

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