CVEN4301 Advanced Concrete Structures 

Prestressed Concrete – Lecture 2
Flexural Behaviour of Uncracked Members
 Initial Strains
Consider a section in a prestressed member that is
subjected to its self-weight + prestress at time = 0
strain reference points

initial elastic initial strain in

concrete strain prestressing steel

If the strain in the prestressing steel is increased, the strain in the

concrete is reduced.

Contrarily, if the strain in the prestressing steel is reduced (over

time) then the strain in the concrete is increases.
 Effects of Creep and Shrinkage
Next consider the same section after deferred losses (time = )

A A' E E'
O p O
yG
e ci Q Q'  pe
C D
B B' F' F
strains concrete stresses
creep and shrinkage strain in concrete
The increase in compressive strain in the concrete at the level of
the tendon equals the reduction in tensile strain in the tendon.
The new total strain in the tendon is:
 Effects of Creep and Shrinkage
Next consider the same section after deferred losses (time = )

A A' E E'
p O
yG
e Q Q'  pe
C D

Q'' B B' F' F

strains concrete stresses

creep and shrinkage strain in concrete

The prestressing force decreases from its initial value (Pi) to an

effective value (Pe):
 Effects of Creep and Shrinkage
Next consider the same section after deferred losses (time = )

A A' E E'
p O
yG
e Q Q'  pe
C D

Q'' B B' F' F

strains concrete stresses

creep and shrinkage strain in concrete

Because of the reduction in the prestressing force, the concrete stresses

are reduced in value. However, there has been no change in the
eccentricity of the prestress and, thus, a proportional reduction occurs in
the concrete stress at all levels by an amount equal to Pe/Pi.
 Effects of Creep and Shrinkage
Next consider the same section after deferred losses (time = )

A A'' A' E E'

O p O
yG
 ce
e Q Q'  pe
C D

Q'' B'' B B' F' F

reduced strain in 
cc sh
concrete due to loss
of stress E'F'. strains concrete stresses

The elastic strain line must also rotate about point O, and the new elastic
line is A"B". Thus, at the tendon level the elastic strain in the concrete is
now CQ" and the inelastic strain is Q"Q'.
 Effects of Creep and Shrinkage
Next consider the same section after deferred losses (time = )

A A'' A' E E'

O p O
yG
 ce
e Q Q'  pe
C D

Q'' B'' B B' F' F

reduced strain in 
cc sh
concrete due to loss
of stress E'F'. strains concrete stresses

The band between A"A' at the top fibre and B"B' at the bottom fibre
represents the total inelastic (creep and shrinkage) strain in the concrete.
 Effects of Creep and Shrinkage
Next consider the same section after deferred losses (time = )

A A'' A' E E'

O p O
yG
 ce
e Q Q'  pe
C D

Q'' B'' B B' F' F

reduced strain in 
cc sh
concrete due to loss
of stress E'F'. strains concrete stresses

If there is untensioned steel reinforcement present in the section, the initial

steel stresses can be determined approximately by multiplying the
concrete stress in adjacent concrete fibres by the modular ratio n = Es/Ec.
Deflections of Uncracked Beams

During its service life, a structure

is subjected to a sustained load of
relatively constant magnitude
(deal load) and to repeated short-
term loads (live load) that may
vary in magnitude and
configuration.
 Deflections of Uncracked Beams

Case (c): the prestress initially

induces an upwards deflection in
the member so that, with the self-
weight acting, the initial total
deflection at time to might well be
upwards. This deflection increases
with time as the result of creep in
the concrete.
Deflections of Uncracked Beams

Case (d): alternatively, on the

application of the superimposed
dead load and permanent
component of the live load, the
deflection might be downwards.
Again, this deflection increases
with time as the result of creep in
the concrete.
Deflections of Uncracked Beams

If the prestressing force had been

chosen to balance the full dead
load, then the initial deflection
would be zero and there would be
only a slight change in deflection, if
any, over time due to creep.
 Calculation of short‐term deflections
Elastic deflection of a flexural member:

For an uncracked member:

Initial deflection due to dead load and prestress
Simply supported member with a parabolic cable profile:

P 

is very small

 Initial deflection due to prestress

Upward deflection due to upward equivalent load :

See Appendix D 
Upward deflection due to moment Pe1: of Text
Appendix D of Text
 Initial deflection due to prestress

Total upward deflection at mid-span due to prestress:

 Initial deflection due to dead load and prestress

Downwards deflections due to dead load:

Total deflection due to dead load and prestress:

 Live Load deflection

Downwards deflections due to live load:

 The creep function
For practical purposes creep strain is assumed to be proportional to stress in
the working load range. The elastic strain is also proportional to stress:

The ratio of creep strain to elastic strain is therefore independent of the

constant sustained stress σo. This ratio is called the creep function, and is
denoted as (t, to):

The final value of the creep function at time infinity is expressed as:

The function is independent of stress and is a measure of the potential

creep of the concrete when loaded at age to.
 The creep function

Physically the creep function, o*, can be thought of as the long-

term creep strain, divided by the initial elastic strain observed when
it was first loaded at age to.

The creep strain can be evaluated from the creep function:

elastic strain creep function

The final creep strain is:

 Creep deflections in uncracked prestressed member

We start by ignoring the presence of any steel in the cross-section and

the state of stress due to prestress and sustained dead load is
assumed to remain constant over time.

The load-induced strain at time t in every fibre is made up of the

initial, elastic value εce(to) and the subsequent creep strain εcc(t):
 Creep deflections in uncracked prestressed member

The total bending deformation (curvature) in the section due to elastic

strain and creep is therefore:

where o is the initial, instantaneous curvature.

 Creep deflections in uncracked prestressed member

After a long period of time the creep function approaches its final value
o* and the long-term curvature is thus:

The creep component is:

 Creep deflections in uncracked prestressed member
The deflection after all creep has taken place is thus:

Alternatively, we can write:

where yo is the initial deflection due to dead load, prestress plus any
permanent component of the live load and R* is the multiplying factor:

It then follows that the maximum creep deflection, c*, is:

 Creep deflections in uncracked prestressed member:
correction for presence of reinforcing steel and tendon

The previous analysis ignores the presence of the tendon and any
untensioned reinforcing steel, which tend to reduce the creep curvature.

An improved estimate of the long-term creep curvature can be obtained

by introducing a correction term, *c , which may add to or subtract
from the calculated value for *c.

This correction term can be expressed as:

where α1 and α2, are non-dimensional parameters, *ccp is the creep

strain at the level of the tendon (ie at depth dp) and D is the overall
depth of the section.
 Creep deflections in uncracked prestressed member:
correction for presence of reinforcing steel and tendon
The non-dimensional parameters, α1 and α2, are given by:

where pp is the ratio of the tendon area to the gross area, pp = Ap/Ag,
and np is the modular ratio, np = Ep /Ec.
For sections containing both tendons and tensile reinforcing steel,
replace Ap with an equivalent area of steel, Aeq, where:

and the equivalent tendon is located at the equivalent depth deq:

 Creep deflections in uncracked prestressed member
When the curvature due to creep has been evaluated for a typical
section, or for several typical sections, double integration gives the
deflections due to creep:

Alternatively, for a member uniformly loaded member on span L, the

mid-span deflection can be determined using the approximation:

For a simply supported member, this reduces to:

 Shrinkage deflections in an uncracked member
Uniform shrinkage throughout the cross-section of a concrete member
produces axial shortening only and, hence, no increment in curvature
and no transverse deflection of the member. However, reinforcing
steel and a bonded prestressing tendon have a restraining effect on
free shrinkage and this, in turn, causes unsymmetrical shrinkage over
the depth of the section and, thus, a strain gradient (curvature). This is
referred to as shrinkage warping.

An expression for the shrinkage curvature in a cross-section can be

obtained by considering the increments in strain that occur during the
shrinkage process.

where cs is the free shrinkage and α1 and α2 are similar to the
parameters above in the creep analysis.
 Shrinkage deflection in an uncracked member:
correction for presence of reinforcing steel and tendon
The non-dimensional parameters, α1 and α2, are given by:

where

es is the eccentricity of the steel area As; e is the eccentricity of the

prestressing area Ap. The steel area As may be placed near the
compressive face or near the tensile face or distributed through the
section. If there is more than one layer of reinforcing steel in the section,
then As is the sum of all reinforcement areas through the section and es
is the eccentricity to the centroid of these areas.
 Shrinkage deflection in an uncracked member
When the curvature due to shrinkage has been evaluated for a typical
section, or for several typical sections, double integration gives the
deflections as:

Alternatively, determining the shrinkage curvature at each and at mid-

span, the mid-span deflection can be determined from:

For a single span member, assuming a constant curvature due to

shrinkage warping over the length of the member, L = M = R: