INTRODUCTION : TENDONS

Tendons are a single or group of prestressing elements

and their anchorage assemblies, which impart a
compressive force to a structural member. Also
included are ducts, grouting attachments and grout.
The main prestressing element is usually a high
strength steel member made up of a number of
strands,wires, or bars.
Prestressing tendons (generally of hightensile steel
rods ) are used to provide a clamping load which
produces a compressive that balances the tensile
stress that the concrete compression member would
otherwise experience due to a bending load.
ADVANTAGES OF PRESTRESS CONCRETE
Very rapid speed of erection
Good quality control
Entire building can be precast-walls,
floors,beams,etc.
Rapid construction on site
High quality because of the controlled conditions
in the factory
Prestressing is easily done which can reduce the
size and number of the structural members.
DISADVANTAGES OF PRESTRESS
CONCRETE
Very heavy members
Camber in beams and slabs
Very small margin for error
Connections may be difficult
Somewhat limited building design flexibility
Economics of scale demand regularly shaped
buildings.
Need for repetition of forms will affect building
design.
Joints between panels are often expensive and
complicated.
Skilled workmanship is required in the application of
the panel on site.
Cranes are required to lift panels.
TYPES OF TENDON
Cable
Strand
Wires
Bars
( high tensile and round bars )
Introduction : Cable
Construction of post-tensioned slabs on
grade is very similar to using reinforcing
steel, except for the tensioning step.
Cables are arranged as indicated by the
engineer and chaired to run through the
center of the slab.
For residential construction, tendons at 48
inches on center are common.
Commercial foundations will have much
more steel. Tendons can be easily routed
around obstructions.
Characteristic and Used for Tendon
cable
A residential post-tensioned concrete slab will
typically be 8 inches thick and use 3000 psi
concrete. Once the concrete has gained strength to
2000 psi, typically within the 3 to 10 days
recommended by PTI, the tendons are stressed.

Tendons today are seven high-strength steel wires
wound together and placed inside a plastic duct. At
each end a PT anchor is located and these are
located in pockets embedded into the slab edge.
When the strands are stressed, the wires will stretch
about 4 inches for a 50 foot strandto apply 33,000
pounds of load. Stressing should only be done by
qualified workers. After stressing, the tendon is cut off
and the pocket in which the anchors are located is
filled with grout to protect them from corrosion.

Continuous
Larger structural concrete members may also be
post-tensioned, especially in bridges and floors and
beams in parking structures.
The process is very similar to that used for slabs,
except on a bigger scale. One interesting
difference is that the tendons will often be "draped"
so that they are low at the midpoint of a beam and
high at the supportsthis places the steel at the
point of highest tension where it can keep the
concrete held together tightly. With structural
members the duct is often grouted full following
stressing to bond the strand to the concrete along
its entire lengththese are called bonded tendons.
Unbonded tendons, used in residential slabs, remain
free to move within the duct and are protected
from corrosion by grease.
Pre-stressing wire is a single unit made of steel, mainly used in
post-tensioning systems for pre-stressing concrete, is cold drawn
and stress relieved with a yield stress of about 1300 MPa. Wire
diameters most commonly used in New Zealand are 5mm, 7mm,
and 8mm.

TENDONS
WIRES
Low relaxation ensures that no noticeable loss of tension will occur in
time, therefore a long lasting compressive force on concrete.

Deviated tension is current in post-tensioned structures, stay-cables and
even some prefabrication methods.

Stress corrosion and hydrogen embrittlement are known to be a threat for
high-tensile structural steels, especially in environments containing
chlorides. For several decades.

SPECIFICATIONS AFTER STRESS
RELIEVING





Introduction : Strands
Strand, which is used in both pre and post-tensioning is made by winding seven cold
drawn wires together on a stranding machine. Six wires are wound in a helix around a
centre wire which remains straight. Strands of 19 or 37 wires are formed by adding
subsequent layers of wire. With wire tendons and strands, it may be desirable to form a
cable to cope with the stressing requirements of large post-tensioning applications.
Cables are formed by arranging wires or strands in bundles with the wires or strands
parallel to each other.
Two wire
strands
Three wire
strands

Seven wire
strands
Technical data
which is used in both pre and post-
tensioning is made by winding
seven cold drawn wires together
on a stranding machine.
Six wires are wound in a helix
around a centre wire which
remains straight.
The prestressing steel can be a
high strength steel strand (typical
in horizontal applications) or a high
strength steel bar (typical in
vertical applications).



A tendon can be made up of a single
steel bar. Post-tensioning bars are high
strength steel bars. The diameter of a
bar is much larger than that of a wires.
These bar type tendons are used in
certain types of post-tensioning
systems.
When employed with threaded
anchorages has the advantages of
eliminating the possibility of pull-in at
the anchorages and of reducing
anchorage costs.

The normally available sizes are from 10mm
to 44mm (5/8 to 1-3/4in) diameter with 10,
12, 16, 20, 22, 25, 28 and 32 mm dias being
more common. The bars are usually threaded
with very coarse thread.

The alloy steel from which these bars are
made has a yield stress in the order of 620
MPa.

This gives bar tendons a lower strength to
weight ratio than either wires or strands.
For members, the high-tensile steel, used generally,
consists of wires, bars or strands. The high tensile
strength of steel is generally achieved by marginally
increasing the carbon content in steel in comparison to
mild steel. High-tensile steel usually contains 0.6 to
0.85% carbon, 0.7 to 1 % manganese, 0.05% of sulphur
and phosphorus.
The high carbon steel ingots are hot rolled into rods
and cold drawn through a process of dies to reduce the
diameter and increase the tensile strength. The durability
of wires gets improved due to the cold-drawing
operation. The cold-drawn wires are then tempered to
improve their properties.
Tempering or ageing or stress relieving by heat treatment
of wires at 150-420C improves the tensile strength.
These cold-drawn wires are generally available in nominal
sizes of 2.5, 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8 mm diameter.
Codes of Properties : Tendons
Plain hard-drawn steel wire conforming to IS:
785 (Part 1)-1966 and IS: 1785(Part 2)-1967,

Cold-drawn Steel wire, BS : 5896

High tensile steel bar conforming to
IS: 2090- 1962

Uncoated stress relieved strands conforming
to IS: 6006-1970
The 3D Model Of Pre-Stressed Concrete
Pre-Stressed Production using wire in India
Multi-Strand System