Elongation Control to Prevent Issues in Prestressed Concrete Bridges

midasBridge TeamMay 18, 2022

Elongations of Prestressing Steels

 

 When we build prestressed concrete structural members, which is a frequently used material for bridges worldwide, the benefit in material savings and reduction of dimensions is guaranteed only when it is built correctly. Structures behave the way they are built, and not the way they are designed, so it is imperative that the designer and reviewer engineers provide the necessary information so that the construction process is oriented towards a structure that meets all safety requirements.

 

 
Figure.1 Bridge span and length
  

 

In this article, we present, in a concise way, the reasons why the elongations of prestressing steels in bridges should be controlled, and in the end, we provide a comparison of a real case in contrast to what is obtained from numerical modeling. Also, you can download a spreadsheet template (Click here) for the manual calculations of the friction loss and elongations that you can use to compare with the reliable results of midas Civil.