Preliminary Design Criteria of Prestressed Concrete Structures

Abstract

Although not the only option, reinforced concrete is the most widely used technique in the world for building structures. Joseph Monier, the owner of an important nursery in Paris deserves the credit for making the first practical use of reinforced concrete in 1867. Throughout the entire period of 1850 -1900, relatively little was published as the engineers working in the reinforced concrete field considered construction and computational methods as trade secrets. One of the first publications that might be classified as a textbook was that French engineer, Armand Considere, in 1899, who had been chief engineer with the Ponts et Chaussees in France. In 1903, with the formation in the United States of a joint committee of representatives of all organizations interested in reinforced concrete, uniform applications of the knowledge to design were initiated. Since then, engineers and especially architects were able to make the preliminary designs called “Preliminary Dimension Estimation” as well as “Reinforcement Estimation” through the “Thump Rule Method” in Reinforced Concrete Structures. By the beginning of new era of prestressed concrete structures, especially in High Rise Buildings the dimension estimations well as reinforcement estimation through Thump Rules of Reinforced Concrete Structure were not be adequate. In this paper, the preliminary design criteria of prestressed concrete structures are discussed in several conceivable aspects. However, while this is the simplest method to check the total estimated dimensions and quantity of prestressing as well mild reinforcement, it is the least accurate and requires considerable experience to break down the measures vs the amounts down to the standard method of measurement requirements. The prestressing of concrete has several advantages as compared to traditional reinforced concrete (RC) without prestressing. A fully prestressed concrete member is usually subjected to compression during service life. This rectifies several deficiencies of concrete as material of construction and prestressing technology.