prestressed concrete

Concrete reinforced by either pretensioning or posttensioning, allowing it to carry a greater load or span a greater distance than ordinary reinforced concrete. In pretensioning, lengths of steel wire or cables are laid in the empty mold and stretched. The concrete is placed and allowed to set, and the cables are released, placing the concrete into compression as the steel shrinks back to its original length. In posttensioning, the steel in the concrete is stretched after the curing process. Prestressing places a concrete member in compression; these compressive stresses counteract the tensile bending stresses of an applied load. The process was developed by the French engineer Eugène Fressinet in the early 20th century.

prestressed concrete [¦prē′strest ′kän‚krēt]

(materials)

Concrete compressed with heavily loaded wires or bars to reduce or eliminate cracking and tensile forces.

Prestressed concrete

Concrete with stresses induced in it before use so as to counteract stresses that will be produced by loads. Prestress is most effective with concrete, which is weak in tension, when the stresses induced are compressive. One way to produce compressive prestress is to place a concrete member between two abutments, with jacks between its ends and the abutments, and to apply pressure with the jacks. The most common way is to stretch steel bars or wires, called tendons, and to anchor them to the concrete; when they try to regain their initial length, the concrete resists and is prestressed. The tendons may be stretched with jacks or by electrical heating.

Prestressed concrete is particularly advantageous for beams. It permits steel to be used at stresses several times larger than those permitted for reinforcing bars. It permits high-strength concrete to be used economically, for in designing a member with reinforced concrete, all concrete below the neutral axis is considered to be in tension and cracked, and therefore ineffective, whereas the full cross section of a prestressed concrete beam is effective in bending. See Reinforced concrete, Stress and strain