Presentation

on
Prestressed
Rock
Anchors
Prestressed Rock Anchor

A prestressed rock anchor is a high strength steel

tendon, fitted with a stressing anchorage at one end
and a means permitting force transfer to the grout
and rock on the other end. The rock anchor tendon
is inserted into a prepared hole of suitable length
and diameter, fixed to the rock and prestressed to
a specified force.
Applications

Ground anchors are used in civil engineering for the

following applications:

To resist lateral thrust on retaining walls and in-situ
diaphragm walls,

For stabilizing of slopes and land slides,

To resist uplift on basements and other foundations,

To strengthen masonry and concrete dams, and

For testing of large diameter piles.

Applications Include

Retaining walls

Tower bases

Concrete structures

Concrete form hardware

Tunnels

Mines

Dams

Bridges

Slope stabilization

Rock fall protection
Typical Details of Prestressed Rock Anchor
 Terminology

Fixed Length - The length of the

anchor which is grouted in, from
which the pullout capacity of
anchor is achieved.

Free Length - The part of the

anchor which is not bonded to the
surrounding area and is free to
elongate.
Necessary Data

a) Service life of anchor (temporary or permanent);

b) Design load per anchor; and
c) Soil investigation for following factors:
i) Complete borehole log indicating types of soil and rock
encountered with respect to depth. The depth of penetration into
rock with core drilling should be minimum 10 m
ii) Un drained shear strength and bulk density at different depths
iii)Shear strength and unit weight of rock
iv) Sulphate and chloride contents in soil as well as ground water
v) Permeability of rock and fissurs -pervious zones water table and
artesian head if any recorded on boreholes
Method of Construction
Drilling

Drilling Through Overburden - Drilling through

overburden is normally carried out by suitable
equipment. For keeping the side stable, either
temporary easing is provided or bentonite mud
circulation is used. The size of the hole depends upon
the capacity of the anchor. In case of inclined bores use
of casing tube shall be obligatory.

Drilling Through Rock - Drilling through rock is carried
out by using either rotary method with water flush or
using pneumatic percussion method with air and/or
water flush.
Percussion Drilling
Water Proofing of Hole

After drilling through rock a water test is carried out.

The anchorage length (fixed length) for all permanent
anchors has to be tested for water-proofing to avoid
corrosion and if water loss is found to be excessive the
hole is grouted.

The grout is then re-drilled and water test repeated
and the whole procedure is repeated till satisfactory
lugeon value is obtained.

Lugeon: Lugeon is defined as flow of water in
liters/minutes/meter length of the test section at a
pressure of 10 kg/cm2.
 Outlet

Pressure Gauge

Inlet

Arrangement for Water Test

Fabrication of Anchors

Anchors can be shop fabricated or fabricated on

site depending upon the construction requirements.

Anchors shall be free of dirt, detrimental dust or
any other deleterious substance. Anchors shall be
handled and protected prior to installation to avoid
corrosion or physical damage.
Fabrication of
Rock Anchor

Required number of strands is to be cut to the required length.
Cutting of cable is to be derived as Fixed length + Free length +
extra 1m (for stressing)

Strands are cleaned thoroughly and oil on the surface is removed.
1st coat of epoxy paint is to applied immediately with the help of
brush. After 24hrs 2nd coat of epoxy paint is to be applied on
strands. Quartz sand is to be sprinkle on fix length of strands when
3rd coat is tacky.

Free length of strand is to be cleaned with the help of emery paper.
Place the plain flexible HDPE pipe, 2mm thick on free length
portion.

The pre-stressing strands, greased for the free length portion should
be enclosed in HDPE sleeve, 2mm thick encasing individual strand.

Fixed length of the cable is then provided corrugated HDPE
sheathing 2mm thick.

Centralizers fabricated from plastic or steel, are provided to ensure
min 5mm grout cover to anchor in fix length.

Fix shoe with the help of brazing at bottom of cable. Then tie
spacer at 1m c/c through out the length of cable.
Spacers & Centralizers

Spacers: The purpose of a spacer is to help insure that

grout surrounds each strand for corrosion protection and
for bond strength development. Designers should
specify the desired distance between spacers (typically
7'-10').

Centralizers are placed over the assembled strand
bundle in order to maintain the required spacing
between the anchor and the borehole so that an
adequate thickness of grout (minimum 0.5") surrounds
the anchor. A wide variety of centralizers are available
depending upon the anchor type.
Lowering Anchors

Anchors are placed in accordance with type of

anchors.

Suitable guide system and temporary fixing of the
anchor is required to avoid movement of anchor
during grouting.

Grout tubes are checked to ensure that they are
free.

Suitable spacers are also provided when required
to ensure that anchor assembly does not get
entangled.
Fixed Length Grouting

After the anchor is lowered, the fixed length of the

anchor is grouted.

Grouting is carried out under pressure (@ 4-8
kg/cm2) by fixing a packer at the top of the fixed
length or as necessary in accordance with the type
of anchor.

Normally thickest possible grouting (0.5 water
cement ratio) is adopted for primary grouting.

Adequate care is required so that the free length of
the anchor remains free to elongate.
Stressing

Stressing is carried out after 21 days of grouting when, it

attains the required strength.

Depending on the different types of anchors used, details of
the stressing jack vary.

The anchor is stressed for about 10 percent of the load and
elongation measurements taken beyond this range.

This takes care of any seating errors.

Anchor is subsequently stressed to 10 percent excess load
over the design and elongation noted.

After noting the elongation, the anchor is locked either to
design load or part of the design load depending on the
requirements.
Setup for Stressing
 12 Strands of
12.7 mm dia

Jack – K 200
Pressure Application
Elongation Measurement
Stressing of inclined Rock Anchor

http://www.rembco.com/rockanchor.html
Case study

Project: Construction of Office Complex for Canara

Bank at Bandra Kurla Complex, Mumbai
Client : Canara Bank
Consultant : STUP
PMC : Gherzi Eastern Ltd.
Contractor : NBCC Ltd.
Sub Contractor: Freyssinet Presstressed Concrete Co.
Ltd.
Front View
Design for Rock Anchor

Design Load: Design load is a assign load on anchor after allowance for
all losses. In this case the design load is 50 T.

High Tensile Strand
Nos of high tensile strand required for 1.75 x 50 T capacity of anchor:
Minimum breaking load of 12.7mm dia HT strand = 18737Kg
Factor of safety for tension in strand = 1.5(min)
U.T.S. of cable = 18737/1.5
= 12.49 T
No of HT strand required for 55 T Design load = 87.5/12.49
= 7 nos
Hence use 12 K13 Anchorage System i.e. 7 nos of 12.7mm dia HT Strand
for each anchor.
 Continue…

Fixed Length
Capacity of anchor = 55 T (with losses)
Diameter of Hole = 110mm
Bond stress between strata & grout = 2.9 kg/cm2
Fixed length = 55000/(3.14 x 11 x 2.9)
= 548.8 cm
~ 550.0 cm

Free length

Minimum 5.0 m (As per IS-10270 : 1982)

Total Length of Anchor

Fixed + Free = 10.5 m
 Estimate for Rock Anchors works

Sr. Estimated
Description of Item Unit Rate (Rs.) Amount (Rs.)
No. Quantity
Designing, providing and installing
1 working permanent vertical rock
anchors

a) 50 T net design capacity 60 nos 38000 2280000

b) 75 T net design capacity 10 nos 47500 475000

Designing, providing and installing non-

2
working vertical rock anchors

Performance test for 50 T design (net)

a) 1 no 75000 75000
capacity of the pre-stressed anchor

Load test to failure for 50 T design (net)

b) 1 no 75000 75000
capacity of the pre-stressed anchor

Total Amount (Rs.) 2905000

 Water Test: Observation Table

Water meter reading Lugeon

Applied (ltr) Water loss Value Average
Time
Sr. No. Pressure (ltrs/min/m (water Lugeon
Initial Final (minute)
(MN/m2) tr) loss/press Value
Reading Reading ure)

1 0.05 981.3 981.5 5 0.007 0.15

2 0.10 982.1 982.4 5 0.011 0.11

3 0.15 983.4 984.0 5 0.022 0.15 0.15

4 0.10 985.6 985.9 5 0.011 0.11

5 0.05 986.3 986.6 5 0.011 0.22

Water Test

Conclusion:
Water loss is to be finding out in terms of
Lugeons. The lugeon value achieved is 0.15 which is
less than 3.0 as per IS: 10270-1982. Hence the test
was passed.
Pullout Test

Objective:

To study the performance of tendon anchorage
assembly under the application of pre-stressing force.

To observe for any premature failure – any permanent
deformation and abnormal behavior during application
of load.

To measure the elongation of tendons during loading.
Test Setup and Procedure

The loading mechanism consist of 12 nos HT strand 12.7mm

dia, Freyssinet K-200 Jack and electrically operated high
pressure pump.

The electrically operated high pressure pump was equipped
with calibrated pressure gauge and least count of 5 kg/
cm2.

The stressing equipment was placed over the rock anchor
tendon in such a manner that the jack, bearing plates and
stressing anchorage are axially aligned with the tendon and
the tendon was centered within the equipment.

The pullout test was performed by incrementally loading the
ground anchor in accordance with the schedule given in the
attached format.
Test Setup and Procedure

The load was raised from one increment to another,

immediately after recording the ground anchor
movement up to the failure of anchor.

The anchor failure may occur due to following

Anchor Grout Bond failure

HT strand failure

The load shall be monitored with a pressure gauge.

After stressing the plot of ground anchor movement
versus load for each increment in the failure test is as
under.
 Elongation v/s Pressure Graph

160
149
140 140
133
127
120 118
Elongation in mm

113
110
100 96
80 81

60

40

20

0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450
Pressure in kg/cm2
Conclusion

Anchor failed at 400 kg/cm2 pressure. The failure

occurs due to grout bond failure.

No failure of the strand or distortion of anchorage
was observed after dismantling the test set-up.
Research Paper

Rock Anchors for Dams, The National

Research Project: The Evolution of Post-
tensioned Anchors on Hydropower Dams

By Dr. Donald A. Bruce, Geosystems, L.P., USA and

John S. Wolfhope, P.E., Freese and Nichols, Inc., USA
Abstract

Rock anchors provide a cost-effective and low maintenance solution
for strengthening hydropower dams.

Prestressed rock anchors have been used to stabilize dams and
appurtenant structures in North America for over three decades.

The goal of the National Research Program on Rock Anchors for
Dams is to advance the awareness and understanding of the use of
post-tensioned anchors throughout the dam and hydropower
industries.

The prime objectives are to: a) produce a definitive and detailed list
of all the North American dam anchor projects, b) trace the
evolution of practice via an analysis of codes and specifications,
and c) to project the market for post-tensioned anchors on large
dams and hydropower facilities.

Over 390 case studies have been collected and studied.

The research approach for the National Research
Program was as follows:

Conduct Survey of dam anchoring practice.

Collect all published books and technical papers.

Develop an Internet-based interactive database

repository of information related to anchoring of dams.

Review the evolution of North American anchoring
practice and technical guidance documents.

Characterize the market for prestressed rock anchors in
dams.
Histogram of Anchored Dams
Conclusions

• Prestressed rock anchors have been used successfully over

the past thirty years on nearly four hundred dams and
hydropower facilities in North America.
• Prestressed rock anchors provide a cost-effective,
environmentally acceptable low maintenance solution for
rehabilitating dams to meet modern design standards.
• North American practice has evolved substantially over the
past four decades through emphasis on codes, technical
specifications, and improvements in construction techniques.
Particular attention has been paid to corrosion protection.
• Post-tensioned anchors have a long history of being
successfully applied on FERC regulated hydropower facilities
in a wide range of geometries and capacities.