AR 326 BUILDING CONSTRUCTION VI

Concrete Construction Lecture 03: Pre-stressed R.C. Construction

PRESTRESSED REINFORCED CONCRETE STRUCTURE

Prestressed reinforced concrete is well known for a long time and widely used in the construction industry. Conventional prestressed reinforced concrete structure includes a body of concrete, and a reinforcing element which is embedded in the body of concrete and prestressed, so as to provide a stress in the final structure. Constructions of prestressed, reinforced concrete structures are known and various methods of providing the prestress are known as well. It is well known to heat the reinforcing elements by electric current to provide a desired prestress. It is believed that further modifications and improvements of the existing prestressed reinforced structures and the method of their manufacture are desirable.

 In accordance with the present invention a prestressed reinforced concrete structure has a reinforcing element and composed usually of metal, as well known in the art. It also has a body of concrete in which the reinforcing element is embedded. Furthermore, the inventive structure has a coating which is located between the reinforcing element and the concrete structure. Coating is composed of a plastic material which under the action of heating first melts, and with a continuous heating hardens as a result of its polymerization.

Method of producing a prestressed reinforced concrete structure

A prestressed, reinforced concrete structure is made by applying a coating onto a reinforcing element, introducing the coated reinforcing element into the body of concrete, and heating the reinforcing element so that first the coating melts and a bond between the reinforcing element and the body of concrete is interrupted and the reinforcing element is expanded and thereafter heating the reinforcing element to a higher temperature at which the coating rigidifies and provides a firm bond between the expanded reinforcing element and the body of concrete.

 The inventive prestressed reinforced concrete structure is produced and the method of its manufacture is implemented in the following manner. First, the reinforcing element is coated with the plastic coating in a known manner for example by passing through a bath containing such a plastic material for the plastic coating. Then the reinforcing element coated with the plastic coating is introduced in the body of concrete also in a conventional manner which is not disclosed herein in detail since it is well known for persons of ordinary skill in this art.

 The reinforcing element is then subjected to heating, for example by applying electric current to it. Under the action of electric current the reinforcing element is heated, the heat is transferred to the plastic coating and the coating is melted. As a result of this the bond initially established between the metal reinforcing element and the body of concrete is interrupted. During continuing heating the metal reinforcing element stretches or expands, as well known in the art, since it is no longer connected with the body of concrete. For a while, under the action of the heating the material of the coating rigidifies and firmly connects the stretched or expanded reinforcing element with the body of concrete, in the [reinforced] condition of the reinforcing element. The bond is established over the whole length of the reinforcing element. When the reinforcing element is subsequently cooled, it provides compression forces in the body of concrete, thus creating a prestressed, reinforced concrete structure.

 In the above described method, the heating of the metal reinforcing element can be performed under the action of electric current of low voltage approximately 35-70 Volt. After the body of concrete with the reinforcing element is rigidified, the heating of the reinforcing element with the plastic coating can be performed to the temperature of approximately 170250 C., depending on the material of the coating. The first step of heating to approximately 40-50 C. causes melting of the material of the plastic coating, and then during a further increase of the temperature to 170-250 C. the material rigidifies. When the material of the plastic coating rigidifies, a substantially high bond between the reinforcing element and the body of concrete is obtained substantially to 40-50 kg/cm 2 .

OUTSTANDING ENGINEERING ACHIEVEMENTS PRESTRESSED CONCRETE IN CANADA A Short History - 1952 to 2000

This short history looks at how prestressed concrete came into use in 1952 in Canada. Some innovative early applications of prestressed concrete are examined. Research and more accurate design methods helped engineers to better understand the behavior and performance of prestressed concrete. Prestressing materials and technology developed rapidly worldwide. Outstanding bridges, buildings and building systems, stadiums, arenas and other structures that have been constructed between 1952 and 2000 are described.

BRIDGES
Walnut Lane Bridge - 1949 Philadelphia, PA The construction of the Walnut Lane Bridge was a most significant event and is mentioned here even though it was built in the United States. It was the dramatic groundbreaking project that showed North American engineers the practical value of combining the compressive strength of concrete with high tensile strength prestressing steel. The design of the bridge was based on European prestressing technology and design methods introduced to North America after the Second World War. Professor Gustave Magnel (1885-1955) of Belgium gave lectures to engineers in the US and Canada in the mid 1940's to the early 1950's. Magnel's book "Prestressed Concrete" attracted considerable interest in North America of the potential for prestressed concrete.

 Mosquito Creek Bridge - 1952 North Vancouver, BC The Mosquito Creek Bridge in Vancouver has the distinction of being the first prestressed concrete bridge built in Canada. This bridge proved to be both economical and satisfactory from a structural viewpoint. The bridge is still in service, having been widened on both sides over the years.

Ross Creek Bridge - 1954 Medicine Hat, AB This 60-ft span bridge quickly followed the Mosquito Creek Bridge. It is the first segmental precast concrete bridge in Canada and the first prestressed concrete bridge in Alberta. Ross Creek Bridge has a span of 60 ft (18.3 m) and a 25 ft (7.3 m) roadway. The deck consists of 10 side by side precast T-girders with a depth of about 39 in (1000 mm). The equipment in 1953 did not allow for safe transportation of 60 ft long girders. Therefore, the girders were precast in three 20 ft (6.1 m) segments and shipped to the site where they were erected on two temporary timber bents. After concreting the 4 inch (100 mm) gap between the ends of the segments at the splice, the girders were longitudinally post-tensioned. The bridge was also laterally post-tensioned through the girder top flanges and the diaphragms. It was subsequently determined that full size girders could have been plant-cast, prestressed and trucked to the site. Milestones: The bridge was designed in 1953. The girders were erected in January 1954. The bridge was completed in March 1954 and is still in service.

The success and lessons learned from this bridge and subsequent projects lead to the development of standard factory cast bridge girders. The practice of posttensioning in the plant using highstrength wires gave way to pretensioning with seven-wire strands and deflecting some strands in the forms. Supplemental post-tensioning came to be used whenever extra prestress force or continuity was required. Standard I-girders, box girders, channel slabs, solid and voided slabs and bulb-tee girders were developed and increasingly used across Canada by individual provinces, municipalities, the federal government and the railways as the benefits of economy, durability and faster constructions were realized. This process continues with larger, more efficient sections being developed and placed in service.

 Champlain Bridge 1959-1962 Montreal, QC At the time, this was the largest application of prestressed concrete in Canada. Designed in concrete and steel, the precast concrete option used 53.6 m (176 ft) long precast pretensioned girders supported on Tshaped piers for 46 spans across the St. Lawrence River and the Seaway at Montreal. The prestressed concrete design came in 17% below the steel alternate.

 Kinnaird Bridge - 1964 Over the Columbia River, BC This spectacular 5-span, 408 m long bridge's roadway is 55 m above the fast flowing Columbia River. 15 special 45.8 m (150 ft) drop-in precast prestressed concrete girders span between the triangular pier shafts and abutments. The girders, each weighing over 100 t, vary in depth from 1.8 m at the supports to 2.7 m at mid-span. They were post-tensioned in 3 stages during construction. A launching truss was used to install the girders in sets of 3 @ 4.4 m c/c for the 5 spans. Precast prestressed concrete hexagonal piles support the piers. Precast diaphragm elements were used in the cast-in-place bridge piers.

 Bensfort Bridge - 1969 Peterborough, ON The bridge is 34 ft (10.4 m) wide. 5 lines of standard 54 in (1.37 m) deep CPCI IV girders 75 ft (24.4 m) long were spliced with 67 ft (20.4 m) haunched pier segments to achieve the two 150 ft (42.7 m) main spans and the two 110 ft (33.5 m) end spans. The girders were erected on timber falsework with a double key cast-in-place joint. The bridge was continuously posttensioned over all 5 spans. This bridge design was very significant: precast girders capable of spanning only 120 ft (36.6 m) in one piece were spliced in segments to achieve much longer spans.

 Refinement of the techniques used in the construction of the Bensford Bridge lead to the construction of many other splicedgirder bridges across Canada, including the Perley Bridge (1998) over the Ottawa River, Hawksbury, ON, with main spans of 68.5 m.

 Bear River Bridge - 1972 Digby, NS This bridge was the first precast segmental box-girder bridge in North America to be built using the short-line matchcasting method. The curved bridge is 609 m (1998 ft) long with 6 interior spans of 80.8 m (265 ft) and 2 end spans of 62.1 m (204 ft) Alternate bids were $3.36 million for the segmental precast option and $3.6 million for a steel bridge. 145 single-cell box girder sections, typically 11.4 m wide and 3.6 m deep, were required. Typical sections were 4.3 m long and weighed 82 tonnes.

Vancouver ALRT - 1982-1986 Vancouver, BC The aerial guideway is a 16-km (10 mile) long ribbon of precast prestressed concrete that follows the curvature of the track profile. The guideway has long spans, in-depth crossheads and a minimal visual impact on the urban areas through which it passes. This project was the largest precast contract ever awarded - and one of the most complex precast projects ever built in Canada at the time. Beam production cost $54 million, the total guideway cost $249 million and the total project cost was $802 million. Typical spans up to 45 m used single precast trapezoidal girders in each direction, as a series of two-span continuous structures, that rested on graceful T-shaped column piers. For Phase II, 1040 (484 tangent, 556 curved) girders were manufactured between April 1983 and October 1984. Girders were cast in two stages: first the bottom flange and webs with the prestressing and shear reinforcing. The following day the interior forms were removed and the reinforced top flange was cast. A jig containing threaded inserts was used to accurately position the track fastenings in the girders. A complex adjustable articulated form was used to cast the curved and superelevated girders. The prestressed straight and curved box girders were found to be the most economical solution for the aerial guideway.

Confederation Bridge - 1993-1997 Cape Tormentine, NB, to Borden, PEI No accounting of the accomplishments in prestressed concrete in the 20th century would be complete without including the Confederation Bridge, a two-lane fixed-link 12.9 km (8 mile) bridge. The main bridge has 44 - 250 m spans that rise up to a navigation channel in the middle of the structure. This part of the bridge used 175 precast concrete components (hardpoint segments, pier bases and shafts, main and drop-in girders). The bridge used the latest in high performance concrete technology and is designed to achieve a 100-year service life. The bridge was built in record time using massive precast concrete segments, the largest being the 160 m long pier sections that weigh 7500 tonnes. Components were moved about the casting yards using 8000-tonne capacity Huisman sleds and installed by the Svanen, a specially designed floating catamaran crane. The shallow water approaches were built using tapering box girder segments erected using the balanced cantilever method.

BUILDINGS Grosvenor House - 1960 Winnipeg, MB This apartment building was originally designed as cast-inplace concrete. The City of Winnipeg was just accepting prestressed concrete at the time of construction. An alternate design was prepared in precast with assistance from Lawrence Cazaly. When completed, this 8storey apartment building was the tallest all-precast building in Canada. Over the years, acceptance of precast prestressed concrete is higher per capita in Winnipeg than anywhere in Canada.

 Bromley Place Calgary, AB This 31-storey apartment building is the tallest totally precast concrete building in Canada. Owner & Contractor: MBS Construction (1977) Ltd. Architect: IKOY Architects Consulting Engineers: J. R. Spronken & Associates / W. H. Milley & Associates Precast Concrete: ConForce Structures

Explosive Storehouse AMMO INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECT Suffield, Alberta The prestressed precast wall system will relieve blast pressure without fragmenting, while at the same time, serve as the building envelope. Architecturally, when combined with the red accent trim, the consistent color and texture of the concrete finish eliminated the need for any further treatment. No other construction material could match the simplicity of design and efficiency in meeting the owners unique needs for these structures.

STADIUMS & ARENAS

Saddledome - 1981-1983 Calgary, AB The stadium was built to host the 1998 Winter Olympics. The building form is a 67.7 m radius sphere, intersected by a hyperbolic parabaloid generating the roofline and a plane to delineate the base. This arrangement provided the absolute minimum building volume and unobstructed views of the playing surface. The Saddledome is divided into 5 independent parts: two grandstands having 3 tiers each, 2 grandstands having 2 tiers each and a roof constrained at 2 ends by 4 stability A-frames anchored into rock. The entire structure is of precast prestressed concrete construction. The sphere is divided into 32 equal parts by radial columns that support the ring beam. The ring beam was precast in 16 massive sections which were joined together with cast-in-place joints and posttensioning. A 6 m x 6 m grid network of sagging and hogging cables support 391 lightweight precast concrete roof panels which were concreted together to form a thin-shell roof. The roof can freely move on multidirectional bearings (transfer vertical loads only) on top of the exterior columns. The grandstand structures (concourses and seating inside the stadium) are all precast and consist of interior framing, bleacher support raker beams, double tee floor slabs and bleacher slabs. Framing members were welded and post-tensioned together to resist lateral loads. The Saddledome was a featured venue when Calgary hosted the 1988 Winter Olympics.

Olympic Skating Oval Calgary, AB The Olympic Oval features a unique precast prestressed concrete, segmental arch roof that resulted in a world-class lattice arch structure built on a very austere budget. The actual construction cost was $27 million. The building measures 87.5 m (287-ft) wide by 198.5 m (651-ft) long. Typical arch segments are 1.8 m deep precast concrete trapezoidal thin-walled box sections. Typical segment length is 24 m and weight is 48 tonnes. 84 precast arch segments and 28 perimeter beams were erected on interior scaffolding and exterior steel truss supports. Interior node joints between the segments were concreted. The joints were post-tensioned through ducts in the arch segments. The scaffolding towers were lowered 10 mm at a time in a predetermined sequence to evenly distribute the load through thrust bearings to the 28 buttresses that surround the building. This economical solution was built using an existing precast plant and standard techniques.

OTHER STRUCTURES
CN Tower - 1973 to 1975 Toronto, ON Truly a Canadian landmark, the tower at 1815 ft (553 m) is the world's tallest freestanding structure. Over 1000 tons of prestressing steel was used extensively in the superstructure of the tower and in the foundation. The project contains 53,000 cy (40,500 m3) of concrete. The 1450-ft concrete shaft for the superstructure has a 3-legged cross section that tapers inward. This shaft was slip-formed in about 8 months under conditions of high winds and freezing weather. Tendons were placed, secured, stressed and grouted vertically as the slip forming continued on a scale never before attempted anywhere. The tower prestressing is arranged concentrically and designed to disallow tensile stresses under all estimated dead and live loads and 50year wind loads. The shear stresses due to wind are greatly reduced because of the tapering shape of the tower.

Clinker Storage Silo - 1975 St. Constant, QC This conical structure is used to store 120,000 tons of cement clinker (which enters the storehouse at 1200 F) is entirely constructed above ground using precast prestressed concrete elements. The silo has an inside diameter of 214 ft (65.2 m), a height above ground of 130 ft (29.6 m) and a depth below grade of 79 ft (24 m). It was estimated the precast prestressed design saved $225,000 in construction and operating costs. The circular structure is divided into 64 equal segments. The precast consisted of 64 identical pieces of: 27 ft (8.2 m) long radial tie beams, 15 ft (4.6 m) long slanted V-columns, 33 ft (10.1 m) lower cone elements, 46.5 (14.2 m) ft long wall panels and 116 ft (35.4 m) long conical roof elements. Connections were: welding between precast elements for erection stability and to transfer forces, cast-in-place joints with overlapping reinforcement for continuity and post-tensioning to join the segments at the two exterior ring beams. A temporary erection tower supported the upper ends of the roof elements during construction. This very large and heavily loaded structure was designed effectively and economically using only five different types of precast components. The structure is in full use today after 25 years of service.

CONCLUSION
It is not an easy task to pick a mere handful of outstanding prestressed concrete projects from the thousands of bridges, buildings and other structures built over the past 48 years. While others may have favorite projects, I hope for agreement that the ones chosen represent excellence in the design and application of prestressed concrete. In our current climate of rapid technological change, it is encouraging to look back to the early days of prestressed concrete in Canada. A great many designers and builders immediately recognized the economies, advantages and design possibilities of prestressed concrete and used courage and imagination to work with this new material for so many different applications.

References
Knoll, F., Prosser, M. J., Otter, J. (May-June 1976) Prestressing the CN Tower, - PCI Journal - V. 21, No. 3 Brancatelli, D., (1984) The Saddledome: The Olympic Ice Stadium in Calgary, Canada - L'Industria Italiana del Cemento - N. 5 Lester, B., Armitage, H. (Nov.-Dec. 1987) Olympic Oval Roof Structure, - PCI Journal, V. 32, No. 6 Fowler, J. R., Adams, R. V. (Nov.-Dec. 1986) CPCI Celebrates 25th Anniversary - PCI Journal, V. 31, No. 6 Nettles, T. A.., Lowe, P.A.R. (Nov.-Dec. 1988) Aerial Guideway for the Vancouver ALRT Project - PCI Journal, V. 33, No. 5 Pery, W. E. (Jan.-Feb. 1976) Precast prestressed clinker storage silo saves time and money - PCI Journal, V. 21, No. 1 Fowler, J. R. (Nov.-Dec. 1980) 20 years of progress - CPCI forges ahead - PCI Journal, V. 25, No. 6 Maranda, L. G. (April 1965) design of Columbia river bridge at Kinnaird, B. C. Canada - PCI Journal, V. 10, No. 2 www.cpci.ca Huggins, M. W. (Nov.-Dec. 1979) Reflections on the Beginnings of Prestressed Concrete in America Part 8 The Beginnings of Prestressed Concrete in Canada - PCI Journal, Prestressed Concrete Institute, Chicago, IL - V. 24, No.6