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The use of tendons placed outside the concrete for the longitudinal prestressing of bridge decks is particularly well suited to the triangulated trusses that have now proven effective. Experience acquired first on the Tehran Stadium roofing (internal tendons) and then on the externally prestressed Bubiyan Bridge in Kuwait has highlighted the numerous advantages to be derived from the latter system. The technology has, therefore, been used again, with external tendons, in the construction of the Sylans and Glacieres viaducts located along the Macon-Geneva-Mont Blanc highway in France, on behalf of the Societe des Autoroutes Paris Rhin-Rhone. The two viaducts have a total length of 1500 m. Each consists of two parallel decks, 10.75 m wide. Typical spans are 60 m long. The deck is precast in forms as a series of 4.66 m long elements and erected by sequential cantilevering using a launching girder.

A simple methodology for the solution of beams prestressed or partially prestressed with external or unbonded tendons in the linear elastic cracked and uncracked range of behavior is described. It leads to equations allowing the computation of stresses in the concrete section, the tensile reinforcing steel, the compression reinforcing steel, and the prestressing steel. In particular, it is shown that the stress in unbonded tendons is a function of the applied loading, the steel profile, and the ratio of the crack width (or crack band width) to the span. These factors can all be accounted for through the use of a strain reduction coefficient ê for the uncracked range of behavior and a similar coefficient êc for the cracked range of behavior. It is shown that, when the strain reduction coefficients ê and êc are taken equal to unity, the solutions developed here revert to the solutions developed earlier for partially prestressed beams with bonded tendons.

The concept of precast segmental construction with external tendons has been developed extensively since 1978, starting with the construction of the Long Key Bridge (Florida). Since this first experience, many other structures (more than 5,500,000 ftý of deck) have been designed and successfully built using the same method. The performance of all bridges now in operation has been excellent. However, some questions were raised in the minds of engineers, unfamiliar with the method, regarding the behavior of structures prestressed with external tendons beyond the range of design loads (serviceability limit state). Because continuous reinforcement is not usually provided across the match cast joints between segments, concern was expressed that adequate ultimate behavior and sufficient strength could not be obtained. To provide a satisfactory answer to these legitimate questions, a special computer program (DEFLECT) has been developed to analyze accurately the response of the structures prestressed by external tendons. Moreover, several tests are available to confirm the behavior of such structures while verifying the validity of the DEFLECT computer program. This design tool has been used to predict the structural behavior of simply supported and continuous structures beyond joint opening, up to ultimate capacity of the girders with and without thermal loads. Several different prestressing methods have been analyzed with different bonding conditions at the point of deviation of the external tendons. It was found systematically that structures prestressed with either internal or external tendons behave essentially the same way at all loading stages up to ultimate.

After 10 or so years of research and practical application, the external prestressing of concrete is now becoming a normal procedure, soon to be codified in some countries. Among the technical solutions applied to a large number of works, in the U.S.A. and France particularly, some emerge as being the best examples both from the point of view of performance and economy. This is the case where normal strands in HDPE ducts are used with an injected grout. This technique can be used equally well with removable external prestressing and with external prestressing that is partially bonded. In difficult cases, such as very long structures (bridges with lengths exceeding 200 m or 600 ft) or structures with high curvature (tanks and various vessels) or where it is difficult to bring large jacks up to the anchorages, an external cable, formed of projected strands, gathered together in the same HDPE duct and isolated from one another, is a very effective and elegant solution with an unequalled degree of protection and with the opportunity to check the prestressing force throughout the entire life of the structure.

Paper describes the properties of parallel-lay ropes with a polyaramid (Kelvar 49) core, with particular reference to the long-term properties that are important to the designers of prestressing systems. The anchorage and prestressing systems are described, and results are given for stress-strain, relaxation, creep, stress-rupture, and fatigue behavior. Durability and thermal response are also considered, and it is inferred that the lack of corrosion, in addition to the high strength and high stiffness, makes these materials ideal for use as prestressing tendons where the concrete cannot be used to provide corrosion protection to steel. Descriptions are given of tests on beams prestressed with external tendons, showing that a ductile response can be achieved in a beam made from two brittle materials. It is concluded that these materials will extend the range of structures that can be built with prestressed concrete, and will at last allow the realization of the full potential of externally prestressed concrete.