TITLE:
Experimental Behavior of Partially Prestressed High Strength Concrete Beams
AUTHORS:
Shady H. Salem, Khalid M. Hilal, Tarek K. Hassan, Ahmed S. Essawy
KEYWORDS:
Partially Prestressed; High Strength Concrete Beams; Serviceability Behavior; Failure Modes
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Civil Engineering,
Vol.3 No.3B,
October
11,
2013
ABSTRACT: In the last few decades, prestressed concrete has been
rapidly used in bridge engineering due to the enormous development in
the construction techniques and the increasing need for long span bridges. High
strength concrete has been also more widely spread than the past. It currently
becomes more desirable as it has better mechanical properties and durability
performance. Major defect of fully prestressed concrete is its low ductility;
it may produce less alarming signs than ordinary reinforced concrete via
smaller deflection and limited cracking. Therefore, partially prestressing is
considered an intermediate design between the two extremes. So, combining
high strength concrete with partial prestressing will result in a considerable
development in the use of prestressed concrete structures regarding the
economical and durability view points. This study presents the results of seven
partially prestressed high strength concrete beams in flexure. The tested beams are used to investigate the influence of concrete compressive strength,
prestressing steel ratio and flange width on the behavior of partially prestressed
beams. The experimentally observed behaviors of all beams were presented in
terms of the cracking load, ultimate load, deflection, cracking behavior and
failure modes.