When prestressing tendons in a prestressed flexural member are displaced under torsion, restoring forces are developed to resist torsional rotation. To clarify the torsional resisting mechanism provided by prestressing tendons, the torsional stiffness...
When prestressing tendons in a prestressed flexural member are displaced under torsion, restoring forces are developed to resist torsional rotation. To clarify the torsional resisting mechanism provided by prestressing tendons, the torsional stiffness of prestressing tendons was derived based on the principle of virtual work for the cases of which the prestressing tendons are placed and tensioned non-symmetrically along the centerline of member. The derived stiffness matrix revealed that the prestrssing force and axial stiffness of prestressing tendons have a significant role to resist torsional rotation. The energy-based formulation yielded nodal forces corresponding to the degrees of freedom of torsion and warping which resist the torsional rotation. It was suggested that the conventional solution of beam finite element formulation based on the transformed cross section be improved by adopting the two nodal forces. Through numerical analysis carried out on the existing three-span double-T beam, it was observed that the torsional rotation of prestressed girder can be controlled by changing the prestressing forces and location of prestressing tendons.
The internal or external restraint of non-mechanical strain in concrete structures causes mechanical strain and becomes a source of persistent change in creep-causing stress conditions. The mathematical modeling of creep under a time-varying stress history is generally achieved with consideration of the ages of concrete and concrete properties at the times of loadings, and stress history. This study presents a single-curve formulation of concrete creep due to loading at different ages, which is equivalent to a time-varying stress history. The formulation was attained by introducing a horizontal parallel assumption of creep curves and combining it with the rate of creep method, where each curve depicts the development of creep strain due to the load applied at different ages. Laboratory experiments including axial stepwise loads are carried out to validate the performance of the presented creep model.
An incremental format of the age-dependent constitutive equation was derived to account for the persistent change of creep-causing stress. The derivation was achieved by expanding the total form of the constitutive equation by a first-order Taylor series with respect to stress, non-mechanical strain, and elastic modulus of concrete. The underlying creep model was based on the two-way parallel creep curve method. The resulting incremental constitutive equation was defined by three basic equations of basic creep, drying shrinkage, and the development of the elastic modulus. Two sets of laboratory experiments were carried out to validate the performance of the presented age-dependent constitutive formulation, which included cylindrical concrete specimen tests with and without axial reinforcements.