German University in Cairo

Faculty of Engineering and Materials Science

Civil Engineering Program

PRESTRESSED CONCRETE
CIS 702
Lecture 11

Dr. Ahmed Yousry

GUC 03/12/2015

Agenda

Anchorage Zones

Dr. Ahmed Yousry

Anchorage Zones for prestresed concrete

Introduction
The prestressing force is usually transferred from the prestressing steel to the
concrete in one of the two different ways:
-In post-tensioned construction, relatively small anchorage plates transfer the
force from the tendon to the concrete immediately behind the anchorage by
bearing.
-In pre-tensioned members, the force transferred by bond between the steel and
the concrete.

In either case, the transfer of the prestressing forces occurs at the end of the
member and involves high local pressures and forces.
Dr. Ahmed Yousry

Anchorage Zones for prestresed concrete

Introduction

The length of the member over which the concentrated prestressing force changes
into a uniformly distributed over the cross section is called the transfer length (in
the pre-tensioned members) and the anchorage length (for the post-tensioned
members).
The stress concentration within the anchorage zone in a pre-tensioned member are
not usually as sever as in a post-tensioned anchorage zone.

Dr. Ahmed Yousry

Anchorage Zones for prestresed concrete

Introduction
-In pre-tensioned beams, there is a more gradual transfer of prestressing.
The prestressing force is transmitted by bond over a significant length of the
tendon and there are usually a number of tendons that are well distributed
throughout the anchorage zone. In addition, the high concrete bearing stresses
behind the anchorage plates in post-tensioned members do not occur in pretensioned construction.
Only post-tensioned concrete anchorage zone are given attention in design and
will be treated in details..

Dr. Ahmed Yousry

Anchorage Zones for prestresed concrete

Stress Distribution
-Failure in anchorage zone is the most common cause of failure in post-tensioned
concrete structures during construction.
Anchorage zone may fail due to uncontrolled cracking or splitting of the concrete
from insufficient transverse reinforcement.
Bearing failures immediately behind the anchorage plates are also common and
may be caused because of inadequate dimensions of the bearing plates or poor
quality of concrete

Dr. Ahmed Yousry

Anchorage Zones for prestresed concrete

Stress Distribution
-Consider the case shown in figure below of a single square plate centrally
positioned at the end of a member of depth t and width b.
In the region of length La immediately behind the anchorage plate (i.e. the
anchorage zone), plane sections do not remain plane and beam theory does not
apply.

Dr. Ahmed Yousry

Anchorage Zones for prestresed concrete

Stress Distribution
High bearing stresses at the anchorage plate disappear throughout the anchorage
zone creating high transverse stresses.
In order to enhance the compressive strength of concrete, spiral reinforcement is
usually provided as shown in figure below.
The confinement of concrete due to the spiral reinforcement enhances its strength
and ductility.

Dr. Ahmed Yousry

Anchorage Zones for prestresed concrete

Stress Distribution

Anchorage block and guide

Dr. Ahmed Yousry

Anchorage Zones for prestresed concrete

Stress Distribution
St Venants principle suggests the length of the distributed region for the single
centrally loaded anchorage is approximately equal to the thickness of the member t.
The high compressive stresses vanish after a short distance and tensile stresses
form as shown in figure below.
The transverse tensile forces (often called bursting or splitting forces) need to be
estimated accurately so that transvers reinforcement within the anchorage zone can
be designed to resist them

Dr. Ahmed Yousry

10

Anchorage Zones for prestresed concrete

Stress Distribution

Dr. Ahmed Yousry

11

Anchorage Zones for prestresed concrete

Stress Distribution
On the other hand, the stress trajectories for an eccentrically loaded member are
not equally spaced as shown in figure below. The length of the distributed zone Le
is approximately equal to twice the distance of the prestressing force to the edge.

High bursting tensile stresses developed along the axis of the plate.
Moreover end tensile stresses develop at the edge above the bearing plate. These
tensile stresses called the spalling stresses and are usually exist in eccentrically
loaded end. zone.

Dr. Ahmed Yousry

12

Anchorage Zones for prestresed concrete

Methods of Analysis
The design of anchorage zone for post tensioned member involves both:
-the arrangement of the anchorage plates, to minimize transverse stresses
-the determination of the amount and distribution of reinforcement to carry the
transverse tension after cracking of concrete.
The ECP 203, states that the anchorage zone should be designed to withstand a
force equals to 1.2 the jacking force.
Transverse reinforcement must be provided in to orthogonal direction.
The amount of reinforcement required at each direction are obtained from separate
two-dimensional analysis.

There are three method of analysis:

1-Strut-and-Tie method
2-Beam analogy
3-Finite element method

Dr. Ahmed Yousry

13

Anchorage Zones for prestresed concrete

Strut-and-Tie method
In this simple model it is to consider truss action within the anchorage zone. For the
anchorage zone of the rectangular beam shown in figure below, the truss analogy
show that transverse compression exists directly behind the bearing plate, with
transverse tension, often called the bursting force at some distance along the
member. The truss analogy can be used in t-beams for calculating both the critical
tension in the web and the horizontal tension across the flange.

Dr. Ahmed Yousry

14

Anchorage Zones for prestresed concrete

Beam analogy
The anchorage zone is considered as a deep beam loaded from one side by the
bearing stresses immediately under the anchorage plate and resisted on the other
side by the statically equivalent, linearly distributed stresses in the beam. The
depth of the deep beam is taken as the anchorage length La.
Since the maximum moment denoted Mb and called bursting moment.
By considering the free-body diagram of one-half of the end block, the bursting
moment required for the rotational equilibrium is obtained from statics. Taking
moment about any point on the moment axis we get:

Dr. Ahmed Yousry

15

Anchorage Zones for prestresed concrete

Beam analogy

Expressions for bursting moment

and the horizontal transverse
tension resulting from the lateral
dispersion of the bearing stresses
across the width b are obtained
by replacing the thickness t by
the width b in the equations

Dr. Ahmed Yousry

16

Anchorage Zones for prestresed concrete

Finite element
Computer programs are commonly used to analyze the anchorage zone. These
programs are based on the finite element method. The anchorage zone is modeled
using the shell element and the external prestressing is applied through a series of
concentrated loads. Typical output is shown in figure below.

Dr. Ahmed Yousry

17

Anchorage Zones for prestresed concrete

ECP 203

Dr. Ahmed Yousry

18

Anchorage Zones for prestresed concrete

ECP 203

Dr. Ahmed Yousry

19

Thank You

Dr. Ahmed Yousry

20