Beam Fabrication and Testing

Beam fabrication got under way at OU Fears Lab, in Norman, Oklahoma, on Tuesday
December 1st 2015.
Upon arrival at the premises, each group was responsible for setting up their work
area and acquiring proper tools for different steps of the fabrication process. The
following steps were taken:

Cleaning of the prestressing bed.

Drilling of the prestressing bed to set the dimensions of the bottom flange.
Steel forms were placed on the prestressing bed using an overhead bridge
crane and tightly anchored with wrenches.
#3 bars were cut into 26 24 long pieces from which stirrups were made. A
bar bender with a 1 die was used to create C-shaped stirrups with 90 degree
bends.

Activities resumed on Thursday December 3rd where the following tasks were carried
out:

Construction of the reinforcement cage. Due to the shortage of #3 bars, a #5

bar was used for compression reinforcement and the C-shaped stirrups were
fastened to the mild steel at 8 on center using binding wires.
1-I-shaped wood board matching the beams cross section and the forms
height was cut using a band saw machine and 2 holes (at 2 from the
bottom) were drilled to accommodate the prestressing strands. Another
rectangular wood board was acquired and drilled with the same hole
configuration.
2-0.5 special prestressing strands were inserted in the forms and anchored
at both ends to bulkheads using chucks. The reinforcement cage was placed
inside the forms, the C-shaped stirrups were fastened to the prestressing
strands and the I-shaped wood boards were subsequently clamped to both
ends of the beam. (See Figures 1 and 2)

Figure 1: Placement of Reinforcement Cage and Fastening of Stirrups to

Prestressing Strands

Figure 2: Clamping of Wood Boards to the Ends of the Beam

Strands were tensioned to 165 ksi using a hydraulic jack.

The strand tensioning process marked the end of construction activities that night.

The next milestones were achieved the following Tuesday December 8 th 2015.
Construction activities proceeded as described below:

Concrete was batched using a self-consolidating mix to reduce the

influence of water-to-cement ratio, eliminate the need for vibrating, and
ensure better flow of the concrete in the forms.
After a flow test had been conducted and concrete cylinders had been
fabricated, the concrete was poured into the forms and trowels were used
to ensure a smooth finish at the top surface of the beam.
Several U-shaped welded steel tubes were placed on top of the beam to
hold the forms in place and prevent an out-of-plane bow
U-shaped hooks were fabricated using #5 bars and inserted into the
concrete at third points along the beam.

Over the next 2 days, Wednesday December 9th and Thursday December 10th 2015,
construction activities included:

Compressive Strength Tests of 2 concrete cylinders were conducted and the

prestressing strands were released.
The forms were removed. (See Figure 3)

Figure 3: Removal of Forms

Statement of Team Members
This beam construction experience has been pivotal in reinforcing our
understanding of the prestressed concrete beam fabrication process. Lessons
learned could be summarized as follows:

Concrete mix is important to achieve the required compressive strength

The beam fabrication process requires skills and is time consuming
Team communication is critical for success
0.5 Special Strands are larger than regular 0.5 strands
Cutting and bending steel rebars requires experience
Properly designing of formwork is important to hold the concrete mix in place
Numerous calculations are required to design a single prestressed concrete
beam

Preparation is key; material, formwork, and equipment setup are necessary to

ensure an effective and efficient casting process
Understanding the construction process makes the design more efficient,
cost-effective and practical.