I A C 1 224R 90 m Obb2949 002LBb2 5

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m
CONTROL F-CRACKING 224R-19

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TABLE 4.1 Tolerable crack widths, prestressed member to account for the differences in
reinforced concrete bond properties.
The difficulty with this approach is the complexity
Tolerable
Exposure condition crack width, in. (mm)
of calculations. The determination of the decompres-
"___ - ~~

sion moment and, especially, the stress in th' steel

Dry air or protective membrane 0.016 (0.41)
is complicated and unreliable unless elaborate meth-
Humidity, moist airi soil 0.012 (0.30)
Deicing chemicals 0.007 (0.181
ods are For this reason,
approximate meth-
Seawater and seawater spray: ods for crack width prediction are attractive. These
wetting and drying 0.006 (0.151 arenotmuchlessaccuratethanthemore com-
Water retaining structures* 0.004 (0.101 plicated methods, and the lack of sufficient data, cov-
eringlargevariations in the variables,precludes
'Excluding nonpressure Pipes further refinements a t this date.
The CEB Model Code has the same equation for
the prediction of the crack width in prestressed
members as in nonprestressed members (see Section
not always a reliable indication of the corrosion and 4.2.2). The increase in steel strain is calculated from
deterioration to be expected. In particular, a larger the decompression stage. Several other equations
cover,even if itleadstoalargersurfacecrack have been pr~posed.~."-~.~'
width,maysometimesbepreferableforcorrosion
Limited evidence seems to indicate that unbonded
control in certainenvironments.Thus,thedesigner membersdeveloplargercracksthanbondedmem-
must exercise engineering judgment on the extent of
bers. Nonprestressed deformed bars may be used to
crackcontrol to beused.Whenused in conjuncion
reduce the width of the cracks to acceptable levels,
with the recommendations presented in Sections
Thecracks in bondedpost-tensionedmembersare
4.2.1 and 4.2.3 to limit crack width, it should be ex- not
much differentfromcracks in pretensioned
pected that a portion of the cracks in the structure
beams.
will exceed these values by a significant amount.
4.6.2 Allowable crack widths - Some authors state
thatcorrosion is a greater problem in prestressed
-
4.5 Flexural cracking in prestressed concrete
concretemembersbecause of the smallerarea of
Partiallyprestressedmembers, in whichcracks
steel used. However, recent research resuls4." indi-
may appearunderworkingloads,areusedexten-
c a t e that there is no general relationship between
sively. Cracks form in these members when the ten- crackingandcorrosion in mostcircumstances.Fur-
sile stress exceedsthemodulus of rupture of the
thermore, cracks close upon removal of the load, and
concrete ( S c to 9 a under short-term conditions).
the use of crackwidthlimitsshoulddepend on the
The control of these cracks is necessarymainlyfor fluctuation and magnitude of the live load.
esthetic reasons. The residual crack width, after re-
moval of the major portion of the live load, is small
[about 0.001 in. to 0.003 in. (0.03to 0.08 mm)]and
therefore,crackcontrol is usuallynotnecessary if -
4.6 Anchorage zone cracking in prestressed con.
the live load is transitory. Crete
The prediction of crack widths in- prestressed con- Longitudinal cracks frequently occur in the ancho-
cretemembershasreceivedfar less attention than rage zones of prestressed concrete members due to
in reinforced concretemembers. The availableex- transversetensilestresses set upby the concen-
perimentaldataarelimitedand,at the sametime, trated force^.*^^^* 423 Such cracks maylead to (or in
the number of variables is greater in prestressed certain cases are equivalent to) the failure of t h e
members. member. Transverse reinforcement (stirrups) must
be designed to restrict these cracks.
4.6.1 Crack prediction equations - One approach o Two types of cracks may develop: spalling cracks
crack
prediction,
which
relates it tothe non- which begin attheend face(loadedsurface)and
prestressedcase,hastwosteps.First the decom- propagateparalleltotheprestressing force,and
pression moment is calculated, a t which the stress a t bursting cracks which develop along the line of the
the tension face is zero. Then the member is treated force or forces, but away from the end face.
as a reinforced concrete member and the increase in For manyyearsstirrupsweredesignedtotake
stress in the steel is calculatedfortheadditional the entire calculated tensile force based on the anal-
loading. Theexpressionsgivenforcrackprediction ysis of the uncracked section. Classical and finite-ele-
in nonprestressedbeamsmaybeusedtoestimate mentanalysesshowsimilar stress distributions for
thecracksfor the load increaseabovethedecom- which thestirrupsaretobeprovided.However,
pressionmoment. A multiplicationfactor of about since
experimental
evidenceshows that
higher
1.5 is neededwhenstrands,ratherthandeformed . ' ~ indicated by these an-
stresses c a n r e s ~ l t . ~than
bars,are used nearesttothebeamsurface in the alyses, and the consequences of under-reinforcement

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