Prestressed structure is the one whose

overall integrity, stability and security depend, primarily, on

a prestressing: the intentional creation of permanent stresses in a
structure for the purpose of improving its performance under
various service conditions.[1]
There are the following basic types of prestressing:

Precompression (mostly, with a structure own weight)

Pretensioning with high-strength embedded tendons
Post-tensioning with high-strength bonded or unbonded
tendons

The short, salespersons answer is its a superior building

material. Now Im sure long before you reach the end of
this you will have figured out that Im not a salesperson.
Whether it be because of the fascination I have with the
manipulation of material properties, because of the lack of
wordsmithing prowess that engineers are generally known
for, or because I just told you, either way, when you read
Design Engineer at the bottom it should make sense.

So what makes it a superior building material? Because its

precast? Because its prestressed? Is there a difference
between the two? I mean, even the trade organization for
these building products felt the need to differentiate them
in their name, Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute (PCI).
It can be a little confusing sometimes.
Precast refers to any piece of concrete that is cast at a
different location from the final building site and the cured
(hardened) piece is transported to site when the site is
ready for delivery, whether it is prestressed or reinforced
with conventional reinforcement bar. This is compared to
the alternate method of cast-in-place where forms are
assembled at the building site and ready mix concrete
trucks deliver the wet concrete to be placed and once the
concrete is cured the forms are removed. Since both are
working with the same material, there are bound to be
some similarities in the processes. Both require formwork
to hold the wet concrete in the desired shape until it is
cured and both have some type of steel reinforcement to
help concrete meet the design requirements, but thats
about where it ends. Beyond that the different aspects of
the processes start to really determine what kind of
product youre going to end up with. The largest of these
aspects would have to be the controlled environment
throughout production that precast concrete can offer.
Because of the ability to strictly control the environment in
which the concrete cures, the tolerances, and therefore
quality, you are able to achieve with precast outpaces cast-
in-place by leaps and bounds.

Now on to the really fun stuff, prestressed. Prestressed

concrete is primarily a form of precast concrete. I have to
say primarily because there is technology available to
prestress on site, but the feasibility of the application is
rare. Generally, if you have the ability and infrastructure to
produce precast concrete, you are set up pretty well to
produce prestressed concrete. The basic idea of prestress
plays on the desirable attributes of concrete and steel.
Anyone that works with concrete will know compression is
good, bending (which results in tension forces) is bad. And
anyone that works with steel will know that compression
isnt necessarily bad, but it is mostly used in situations
where tension will be present.

To prestress a piece of concrete:

1. Steel strand made up of individual cables woven

together are stretched and held in that position
(imagine when you pull on a rubber band) inside of
the form.
2. Concrete is then cast around these steel cables and
left to cure and bond to the steel cables.
3. Once the concrete reaches sufficient strength (is hard
enough), the steel cables are cut away from the
supports holding them in their stretched position
(letting go of the rubber band).

Since the steel cables are determined to return to their

original position just like the imaginary rubber band did,
this allows the tension force that was required to stretch
the steel cables to squish the concrete together, also
known as compression. Not only that, but when you
concentrate the steel cables towards the bottom of the
member you can create an upward force from the
prestressing, resulting in compression on the bottom and
tension on the top, or better known as camber. Now when
this member is loaded up and wants to bend and deflect,
it wants to put the top into compression and the bottom
into tension. So the applied load must overcome the
counteracting forces already in the member from the
prestressing. Pretty slick, huh? I think so. That right there is
the ultimate difference between cast-in-place and
prestressed, because for a cast-in-place beam it is
immediately put into tension on the bottom face because
it is only reinforced with conventional reinforcement bar.
This method uses the tension properties of steel, but not
to take advantage of the compressive properties of the
concrete, only to resist the load. This leads to earlier
cracking and lower design strength. Thats why Im all
about prestressing, because inch-for-inch and pound-for-
pound it is simply not possible for cast-in-place to
compete. You would either have to shorten the span or
deepen the beam, and we all know how well that typically
goes over.

Now when you hear the buzz terms of better crack

control, better durability, higher span-to-depth ratio,
or any of the many others when compared to cast-in-
place, youll know that it is first and foremost because it is
precast. We control our enviroment so we can better
control our product. On top of that, all of those
advantages are made possible by prestressing the precast
concrete. Using the natural advantage of steel to make
concrete even more advantageous. This is why prestressed
is so often referred to specifically instead of under the
umbrella term of precast, because in the words of one of
my past professors, Dr. Reza, its a game changer.