In both systems, bonded and unbonded, the anchorages are set in pockets at the floor edge, and stressing is carried out using hydraulic equipment. After stressing, the strands are cut close to the anchorage face using a high-speed disc cutter. The anchorage assemblies are then sprayed with a corrosion inhibitant and covered with grease-packed plastic caps. Lastly the pockets are made good with cement sand mortar for protection against corrosion and fire. The corrosion inhibitant, the grease cap and the mortar provide adequate protection to the anchorage assembly in a post-tensioned floor.
bonded tendons are considered to be more secure against accidental damage. They are, therefore, very useful in breaking ล floor into smaller areas for confining accidental damage. Bonded tendons are often used in beam strips whereas unbonded tendons may be used in slabs supported on these beam strips.
• Bonded tendons usually consist of several strands placed in a common duct. The duct is larger in diameter than a single sleeved strand and when placed in position it gives a smaller eccentricity than an unbonded tendon. Therefore, where maximum eccentricity is desired, bonded tendons are less efficient.
• The unbonded tendons remain totally dependent on the integrity of their anchorages; if an anchorage suffers damage, accidental or due to corrosion, then all prestress in the particular tendon is lost. A grouted tendon is bonded to the concrete section and if its anchorage gets damaged then the bond should be able to retain the prestressing force beyond the bond length.
• If an unbonded strand is damaged in a continuous floor then the whole series of associated spans suffer from the loss. For a bonded tendon the loss is confined to the particular span where the damage has occurred. A sufficient quantity of rod reinforcement should be provided in unbonded floors to contain such damage.
A similar situation may arise if tendons are deliberately cut, for instance, to make a hole. The adjacent continuous spans would in this case require propping if the tendons were not bonded.
• In case of damage to a strand in a completed floor, for short lengths it is possible to withdraw the unbonded strand from its extruded sheathing and insert another, possibly a compact strand instead of the normal—the compact strand has a slightly smaller diameter. Replacement, of course, is not possible if the tendon is bonded.
2.3 Prestressing hardware and equipment
The prestressing hardware is available from a number of local and international manufacturers. Basically, it consists of anchorages (live, dead and intermediate, as discussed below), and sheathing for bonded systems. In order to protect the
2.3.1 Live anchorages
The non-jacking end of the strand may be bonded in concrete, or it may be fitted with a pre-locked anchorage which has also been cast in the concrete. The anchorage at the jacking end is called a live anchorage whereas the one at the non-jacking end is termed a dead anchorage.
Protection to an anchorage is required only at the live end, the dead end is cast in the concrete. The live anchorage is housed in a recess, or pocket, which is wide enough for the stressing jack and deep enough so that there would be adequate concrete cover to the assembly when the recess is made good. After stressing, the strand is cut off close to the face of the wedge using a disc cutter and the whole assembly is sprayed with a corrosion inhibitant. The assembly is then covered with a grease-filled cap and the recess made good with mortar containing a non-shrinking agent.
A few decades ago most manufacturers had their own patent devices for anchoring tendons. They included bars with threaded ends, enlarged ends of wire which passed through holes in thick plates such that the button sat on the plate, wedges, concrete male and female cones gripping a number of wires arranged in a circle, and a toothed conical wedge in a barrel. The cone and barrel systern is now the most commonly employed device for post-tensioning floors and it is available from most manufacturers.
Figure 2.9 shows a typical section at the end of a post-tensioned member containing a monostrand anchorage assembly, complete including the corrosion protection and Figure 2.10 shows a typical multistrand anchorage. Their representative dimensions are given in Tables 2.10 and 2 11.
Figure 2.9 Typical monostrand anchorage assembly
Figure 2.10 Multistrand anchorage
Table 2.9 Typical 13 mm (0.5 in) live anchorages (VSL Monostrand prestressing system)
Single strand 65 130 60 (2.5 5.0 2.3)
Flat 5 strand 260 240 70 (10.2 9.5 2.8)
Multi 3 strand 180 120 120 (7.1 4.7 โท)
Multi 4 strand 175 135 135 (6.9 5.3 5.3)
Multi 7 strand 210 165 165 (8.3 6.5 6.5)
Multi 12 strand 275 215 215 (10.8 8.5 8.5)
Table 2.10 Typical 15 mm (0.6 in ) live anchorages (VSL Monostrand prestressing system)
Type L X B X H
millimetres inches
Single strand 65 130 60 (2.5 5.0 2.3)
Flat 5 strand 277 240 70 (10.9 9.5 2.8)
Multi 3 strand 175 135 135 (6.9 5.3 5.3)
Multi 4 strand 210 150 150 (8.3 5.9 5*9)
Multi 7 strand 230 190 190 (9.1 7.5 7*5)
Multi 12 strand 320 250 250 (12.6 99 9.9)
Type
Lx B X H
millimetres
inches
moves out of the barrel; at the required tendon force the cone is pushed into the barrel so that the strand is lightly gripped in the serrations of the cone. The hydraulic jack is then released; this action pulls the strand and the cone further into the barrel, by 6 to 8 mm (0.25 to 0.375 in) so that the strand is gripped tighter as a result. The 8 mm draw-in, of course, causes a loss in the prestressing force. The stressing operation is shown diagrammatically in Figure 2.11.
Grip strands in jack, take up slack, stress tendon and record extension
Lock
wedges
Figure 2.11 Stressing of a tendon
2.3.2 Dead anchorages
At the tendon end where access is not required for any operation after concreting, the anchorage assembly is cast in concrete. This assembly can be a simpler device because all that is required of it is securely to hold the end of the tendon and transfer the force to the concrete. It must, however, be reliable. If a wedge cone slips at the live end it can be replaced. If a dead anchorage fails then the choice is either to abandon that tendon or to cut the concrete out to gain access to the anchorage and try to replace the part that has failed. One may not be acceptable from the design point of view and the other would require an unscheduled site operation.
A pre-locked live anchorage can be, and often is, used at the dead end. Being inaccessible, it would be unwise to use the normal wedge cone for securing the strand, even if it is pre-locked; a higher grade wedge is preferred. Most of the prestressing systems offer a cheaper and more secure dead anchorage where a purpose-made barrel is swaged on to the strand end at their works. The swaged barrel bears on a steel plate with holes drilled for the strands to pass through. The plate transfers the load to the concrete. A design advantage of such a dead end is that the concrete is prestressed almost to the end of the floor.
(ช) Unravelled strand with crimped wire ends Figure 2.12 Dead-end anchorages
Another method of saving on the number of dead anchorages is to loop the tendons where the dead ends would have been, as shown in Figure 2.13. The live
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( I
Viz ->1 t 1
V 1
น Jx ; 5(
( t J
f11*1 V
1 1
Figure 2.13 Plan showing looped dead ends
anchorages can be arranged either along one edge of a floor or along both edges.
2.3.3 Couplers and intermediate anchorages
In long lengths of slab, it is often convenient to cast the concrete in several operations. Each length may consist of several sections of different ages and the older one may be approaching the onset of shrinkage. It is desirable to apply prestress to each section in succession. This reduces the possibility of shrinkage cracks and, because shorter tendon lengths are now being stressed, the prestress losses are smaller.
The term coupler applies to a mechanical device which allows a new tendon to be coupled to the end of a tendon which has already been locked. An intermediate anchorage is a device which anchors a tendon in the middle of its length at a convenient construction joint and the same tendon continues past the intermediate anchorage. The latter is convenient only for single-strand systems and is used mostly in unbonded applications.
An intermediate anchorage, for use with unbonded systems, consists of a slotted plate which is dropped over the bare strand. The strand is then stressed and anchored using the standard cone and barrel. An unavoidable inconvenience is that the strand has to be threaded through the barrel, and, of course, the length of strand for the next part of the floor is stored in a coil near the intermediate anchorage. An ordinary jack would be almost impossible to use because the strand passes through a hole in its centre and threading this over a long length of strand is not practicable. A special twin-cylinder jack with an open throat for passing the strand through is needed for stressing at intermediate anchorages. An intermediate anchorage can be rather awkward to use and a coupler may be preferred in certain situations.
Couplers for multistrand tendons consist of an assembly with a number of holes into which the anchoring wedges fit and the same number of slots around the circumference. The strands are stressed and anchored in the normal manner using the wedges and then new strands with swaged barrels are placed in the slots. The whole assembly is concreted in with the next section. Approximate dimensions of typical couplers are given in Table 2.11.
2.3.4 Sheathing and other Equipments
Sheathing, or duct, for use in bonded post-tensioning is usually made from galvanize steel and is corrugated so that it is easy to bend to the required tendon profile while retaining a high radial collapse strength. Some