Prestressed concrete pipes and

tanks

Circular prestressing
When

the prestressed members are curved, in the

direction of prestressing, the prestressing is called circular
prestressing.
For example, circumferential prestressing in pipes, tanks,
silos, containment structures and similar structures is a
type of circular prestressing.
In these structures, there can be prestressing in the
longitudinal direction (parallel to axis) as well.
Circular prestressing is also applied in domes and shells.

 The

circumferential prestressing resists the hoop tension

generated due to the internal pressure.
The prestressing is done by wires or tendons placed
spirally, or over sectors of the circumference of the
member.
The wires or tendons lay outside the concrete core.
Hence, the centre of the prestressing steel (CGS) is
outside the core concrete section.
The hoop compression generated is considered to be
uniform across the thickness of a thin shell.
Hence, the pressure line (or C-line) lies at the centre of
the core concrete section (CGC).

The following sketch shows the internal forces under

service conditions.
The analysis is done for a slice of unit length along the
longitudinal direction (parallel to axis).
To reduce the loss of prestress due to friction, the
prestressing can be done over
sectors of the circumference. Buttresses are used for the
anchorage of the tendons.
The following sketch shows the buttresses along the
circumference

 Prestressed Concrete Cylinder Pipe (PCCP) consists of a

concrete core, a thin steel cylinder, high tensile prestressing
wires and a mortar coating.
The concrete core is the main structural load-bearing
component with the steel cylinder acting as a water barrier
between concrete layers, the prestressing wires produce a
uniform compressive pressure in the core that offset tensile
stresses in the pipe, and the mortar coating protects the
prestressing wires from physical damage and external
corrosion.
Prestressed Concrete Cylinder Pipe (PCCP) was first
manufactured in 1942 as lined cylinder pipe.
The prestressing wire in lined cylinder pipe is wrapped
directly around the steel cylinder.
A second type of PCCP was developed in 1952 that has
concrete encasement of the steel cylinder on both sides.

 Known as embedded cylinder pipe, it differs from lined cylinder

pipe by the encapsulation of its steel cylinder in a concrete core.
Therefore, the prestressing wire is wrapped around the concrete
core rather than the steel cylinder as in lined cylinder pipe.
The typical diameter ranges for lined and embedded cylinder
pipe are between 16 to 60-inches and 30 to 256-inches,
respectively.

Internal forces under service conditions

Use of buttress in circumferential prestressing

Advantages

Disadvantages

Resistant to physical damage

Rapidly and economically installed
Good corrosion resistance
Can resist high internal pressure and
external loading
Wide range of pipe diameters
available (up to 144-inches)
Typically more economical than
properly lined and coated ferrous
pipes

Requires careful installation to avoid

cracking
Heavy
Susceptible to attack by Hydrogen
Sulfide (H2S) and acids when pipes
are not coated

Main Forms Failure in PCCP

Broken prestressing wires due to corrosion or poor
material quality
Joint leaks
Poor bedding
Excessive external loading
Hydrogen sulfide (H2S, wastewater applications)
Poor quality mortar coating
Corrosive environment (corrosive/ aggressive soil)
Construction damage (coating damaged and not
repaired)

Design of non-cylinder pipes

The

Basic Principle is to adopt wall thickness circumferential

and longitudinal Prestress to ensure freedom from tensile
stresses in the core pipe under the most severe combination of
sustained internal pressure and external loads likely to occur
in service.
When transient loads such as surge or traffic are added to
sustained loads, tensile stresses up to 30 kg/cm2 maximum
may be permitted in concrete.
It is usual to divide pipelines in steps of Internal Pressure and
design pipe for each section taking advantage of economy to
be gained by tailoring design to suit actual needs without
reducing safety.
Where local high pressures or heavy external loads occur,
pipes in these places can be strengthened without affecting
cost of the remainder of the pipeline.

The following load components are taken into account.

Mass of Pipe
Bedding and Backfill
Mass of water in pipe
Construction traffic wheel loads
Sustained Internal Pressure
Highway traffic wheel loads
Surge

Types of prestressed concrete pipes

1.
.It

Monolyte construction :

is based on the principal that a mix of fresh concrete

subjected to triaxial pressure behaves like a solid body.
.If steel is embedded in such a mass of concrete ,which is
deformed while the pressure is maintained , the steel also
experiences the deformation of the surrounding concrete.
.The manufacturing process consists of pouring concrete
under high frequency vibration in a vertically-placed steel
mould consisting of an inner and outer shell.

The outer shell, consisting of longitudinal sections held

together by spring assembles ,permits the mould to
expand while the inner steel mould is covered with an
expansible rubber membrane.
The main advantage of this method is that stressing and
production are achieved in a single cycle.

2. two-stage construction:
This

is the method of manufacturing of a non-cylinder pipe in the

first stage, the concrete is cast over a tensioned longitudinal
reinforcement.
In the second stage,the concrete pipes after curing are
circumferentially stressed by means of a spiral wire wound under
tension and protected by a coat of mortar.
The main function of the longitudinal prestress is to prevent
cracking in concrete during circumferential winding and cracking
due to bending stresses developed during the handling and
installation of pipes.
The longitudinal section of a non-cylinder pipe with socket and
spigot joints is shown in fig below.
The technique of double winding and double coating is employed
wherever high pressures are involved with larger diameter of
pipes.

Typical longitudinal section of non

cylinder prestressed concrete pipe

Typical longitudinal section of prestressed

concrete embedded cylinder pipe

Design of prestressed concrete

pipes
Criteria of design :
The design of prestressed concrete pipes should cover the
following five stages:
1. Circumferential prestressing, winding with or without
longitudinal prestressing.
2. Handling stresses with or without longitudinal prestressing.
3. Condition in which a pipe is supported by saddles at extreme
points with full water load but zero hydrostatic pressure.
4. Full working pressure conforming to the limit state of
serviceability

5. The first crack stage corresponding to the limit state of

local damage
6. To examine the stage of bursting or failure of pipes
corresponding to the limit state of collapse, mainely to ensure
a desirable load factor against collapse.

General features of prestressed concrete

tanks
Applications:
Prestressed

concrete tanks have been widely used for the

storage of fluids, such as water,oil,gas,sewage,granular
materials like cement,process liquids and chemicals, slurries
and cryogens.
Water storage tanks of large capacity are invariably made of
prestressed concrete.
Recent applications include special forms of prestressed
concrete tanks, which are triaxially prestressed and serve as
containment vessels and biological shields for nuclear reactors.
Prestressed concrete tanks are generally cylindrical and
capacities of about 50 million litres.

 In sanitary structures like sludge digestion tanks , spherical

shapes are preferred and the tank is made up of a top and
bottom conical shell connected by a circular cylindrical
intermediate portion.
Prestressed concrete , although water tight , is not gas tight
where vapours under pressure are to be stored.

Shapes of prestressed concrete tanks

Cylindrical

tanks are most commonly used types from

structural and constructional considerations.
Cylindrical shape is well suited for circumferential wire
wrapping .
Square or rectangular tanks , spanning either vertically or
horizontally , are required for industrial use.
Square tanks are advantageous for storage in congested
urban and industrial where land space is a major constraint.
Multi celled tanks have been constructed using
interlocking polygons and circular shapes , especially for
the storage of cement in silo construction.

 The

hexagonal units are prestressed together to achieve

monolithic action by transverse and vertical tendons.
The advantage of hyperboloidal shape is the reduction in
the thickness of concrete shell and the use of the same set of
straight wires to produce circumferential and vertical
prestress.
Doubly curved shells have also been used to take advantage
of the efficiency of the shell action of the concrete.
Some typical shapes of prestressed concrete tanks are
shown below:

Tank floors
The

base slab forming the floor or the tank is generally

made of reinforced concrete constructed on a flat
bituminuous surfacing or on a thin concrete binding with
the interposition of a sliding layer such as oil paperso that
the slab can move over the compacted soil bed.
The slab should be sufficiently flexible so that it can adapt
itself to the local deformations of the pre-compacted subsoil.
The reinforcements in the slab should be well distributed to
control the cracking of the slab due to shrinkage and
temperature changes.

Typical construction joints in tank

floor slabs

Junctions of tank wall and base slab

The joint between the walls of the tank and floor slab may be any
one of the following three types:
1. Fixed base
2. Hinged base
3. Sliding base
.The

ring tension and baending moments developed in the walls

of the tank are mainely influenced by the type of connection
between the walls and the base slab.
.The junction between the tank wall and footing is the most
vulnerable location as far as leakage is concerned and hence in
the case of tanks storing penetrating liquids, it is necessary to
form the wall and footing in monolithic construction.

Tank wall with fixed base

Hinged base
The

hinged base is not generally adopted for prestressed

concrete.
In this type, the tank wall is supported over an annular
bearing resting on the footing from which the base slab is
isolated by a joint containing a compressible filling.
This arrangement facilitates the junction between the wall
and base slab to rotate about the annular bearing.
The hinged joint can also be formed by circumferential wire
wrapping to the bottom portion of the wall and then packing
the groove with cement mortars.

Tank wall with hinged

base

Sliding base
In

case of large tanks and especially for those which have to

store hot liquids, a movable or sliding joint is the ideal
solution to minimise or completely eliminate the moments at
the base of the wall.
A sliding joint is made by interposing rubber or neoprene
pads at the junctions of the wall and the base.
The main function of these pads is to allow for free horizontal
movement of the wall relative to the base by shear
deformation of the rubber joint, which does not exceed a
critical value of 30 degrees.
The horizontal shear force developed for producing this
deformation is influenced by the thickness of the pad and the
shore hardness of the material.

Tank wall with sliding base

Circumferetial wire winding methods

The

most common of wire wrapping for circular tanks

consists of a traction machine.
The machine is suspended from a trolley which runs along
the top of the tank walls.
The high-tensile wire is drawn through a die while it is
wound on the tank to achieve the designed tension in the
wire.
The B.B.R.V tank winding machine is a lighter and simpler
version with winding speed of 1m/s in which the
prestressing wire is unwound from a pulley whose
circumference is smaller than that of the drive wheel by an
amount corresponding to the extension of the wire required
to obtain the desired prestress.

Wire winding machine for

circular cylindrical tanks

 Circumferential

prestressing is also possible by an ingenious

method, which involves the barrel hoop principle.
In this method, the successive turns of wire wound round the
tank walls having an inward batter are knocked downwards
to achieve the desired extension and force in the wire.
Circumferential prestressing is also possible by the use of
embedded tendons enclosed in sheaths which are prestressed
and anchored against plaster vertical ribs on the outside face
of tank walls.
It is preferable to limit the curved lengths of the cable by
providing jacking points spaced at everyone-third of the
circumference of the tank wall, mainly to overcome the
considerable friction losses.
In case of rectangular tanks, either cast in situ or precast and
assembled, it is more advantageous to use tendons embedded
in cables sheaths.

Analysis of prestressed concrete tanks

The

bending moments and ring tension, developed in circular

water tanks due to the hydrostatic pressure ,depend upon
factors, such as the type of fixity between the tank wall and
the base slab, the diameter of the tank, the thickness of the
wall and the elastic constants of the material forming the
walls.
The vertical bending moment Mw and the ring tension Nd
developed at a distance x from the base of the tank are
expressed as:

Analysis of circular cylindrical tank

 M0

and N0 are the moment and shear acting at the base of the
tank, with their values depending upon the pressure
distribution and the conditions of fixity at the base.
A diagrammatic representation of the variation of bending
moments and ring tension in the walls of tanks for different
types of bases shown in fig.
Maximum bending moment develop in the case of tanks with
a fixed base while the ring tension is maximum for the freebase condition.
In the case of tanks with walls resting on rubber or neoprene
pads, a comparatively smaller magnitude of bending moments
is generated due to the radial frictional force developed at the
base junction.

Ring tension and bending moments in

cylindrical tank walls