Traditional reinforced concrete is based on the use of steel reinforcement bars, rebar, inside poured concrete.

Prestressed concrete, invented by Frenchman Eugène Freyssinet in 1928, is a method for overcoming concrete's natural weakness in tension. It can be used to produce beams, floors or bridges with a longer span than is practical with ordinary reinforced concrete. Prestressing tendons (generally of high tensile steel cable or rods) are used to provide a clamping load which produces a compressive stress that offsets the tensile stress that the concrete member would otherwise experience due to a bending load. Prestressing can be accomplished in two ways:

• Pre-tensioned concrete is cast around already tensioned tendons. This method produces a good bond between the tendon and concrete, which both protects the tendon from corrosion and allows for direct transfer of tension. The cured concrete adheres and bonds to the bars and when the tension is released it is transferred to the concrete as compression by static friction. However, it requires stout anchoring points between which the tendon is to be stretched and the tendons are in a straight line. Thus, most pretensioned concrete elements are prefabricated in a factory and must be transported to the construction site, which limits their size. Pre-tensioned elements may be balcony elements, lintels, floor slabs, beams or foundation piles.

• Post-tensioned concrete is the descriptive term for a method of applying compression after pouring concrete and the curing process (in situ). The concrete is cast around a plastic, steel or aluminium curved duct, to follow the area where otherwise tension would occur in the concrete element. A set of tendons is fished through the duct and the concrete is poured. Once the concrete has hardened, the tendons are tensioned by hydraulic jacks that react against the concrete member itself. When the tendons have stretched sufficiently, according to the design specifications (see Hooke's law), they are locked in position and maintain tension after the jacks are removed, transferring pressure to the concrete. The duct is then grouted to protect the tendons from corrosion.

Prestressed concrete is the predominating material for floors in high-rise buildings, foundations for residential buildings in soft soil areas, bridges and in the construction of water towers and -tanks.

The advantages of prestressed concrete include lower construction costs; thinner slabs - especially important in high rise buildings in which floor thickness savings can translate into additional floors for the same (or lower) cost and fewer joints, since the distance that can be spanned by post-tensioned slabs exceeds that of reinforced constructions with the same thickness (height). Increasing span lengths increases the usable unincumbered floorspace in buildings, diminishing the number of joints leads to lower maintenance costs over the design life of a building, since joints are the major locus of weakness in concrete buildings.

See also

• Structural engineering

External links

• Post-Tensioning Institute
• Post-tensioned concrete comes of age - Comprehensive article on post-tensioned concrete, thought to be from Concrete Construction magazine.