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Ultimate strength behavior of prestressed concrete beams at cryogenic temperatures

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Abstract

This paper investigates the ultimate strength behaviours of the unbonded prestressed concrete (PC) beams at cryogenic temperatures that aims to promote the applications of PC structures in cryogenic environments. Nineteen unbonded PC beams with different tension control stresses (0.4, 0.6, 0.75f ptk) were tested at 20, −40, −70 and −100 °C. The structural performances of the unbonded prestressed reinforced concrete (RC) beams under cryogenic temperature were reported that included general load–deflection behaviours, ultimate resistances, and failure modes. The test results indicated that at cryogenic temperatures, the plane section assumption for the prestressed RC beams under bending still worked, and the appearance of cracks can still be delayed by prestressing. The resistances corresponding to crack initiation, the yield of the non-prestressed tensile reinforcements and the ultimate failure of the beams all increased linearly with the decrease of the temperature. The stiffness of specimens also increased as the temperature dropped. Analytical methods for predicting the resistance corresponding to the crack initiation and the ultimate resistance at low temperatures were developed and compared with the test results.

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Abbreviations

T :

Temperature

W 0 :

Sectional resistance moment

I n :

Moment of inertia of gross section about centroidal axis

A n :

Gross area of concrete section

A p, A s, \(A_{\rm s}^{\prime}\) :

Area of the prestressed strand, nonprestressed longitudinal tension reinforcements and compression reinforcements, respectively

A v :

Area of stirrup within spacing s

s :

Center-to-center spacing of the stirrups

y n :

Distance from extreme tensile fiber to centroidal axis

e pn :

Distance from centroid axis to centroid of prestressed strand

\(a_{\rm s}^{\prime},\) a p :

Distance from extreme compression fiber to centroid of longitudinal compression reinforcements and prestressed strand, respectively

h 0 :

Distance from extreme compression fiber to centroid of nonprestressed longitudinal tension reinforcements

b :

Width of the concrete cross section

x :

Height of the equivalent rectangular concrete compressive stress block

f ptk :

Characteristic value of the tensile strength of the prestressed strand

f cu :

Cubic compressive strength of concrete

f t, f t,T :

Tensile strength of concrete at ambient temperature and at T °C, respectively

\(f_{\rm c}^{\prime},\,f_{{\rm c},{\rm T}}^{\prime}\) :

Compressive strength of concrete cylinder at ambient temperature and at T °C, respectively

f y, f y,T :

Yield strength of the nonprestressed tension reinforcements at ambient temperature and T °C, respectively

\(f_{\rm y}^{\prime},\,f_{{\rm y},{\rm T}}^{\prime}\) :

Yield strength of the compression reinforcements at ambient temperature and at T °C, respectively

f yv, f yv,T :

Yield strength of the stirrup at ambient temperature and at T °C, respectively

σ con :

Tension control stress of prestressed strand

σ pc :

Compressive stress of the concrete on the tensile edge of the beam caused by the effective stress in prestressed strand

σ pe :

Effective stress in prestressed strand before the tests

σ p :

Stress in the prestressed strand in the ultimate limit state

γ :

Reduction factor for W 0 considering the plastic adaption of concrete

R 2 :

Index for the ultimate strength of the beam

M cr :

Bending moment corresponding to the crack initiation

P cr, P cr1, P cr2 :

Resistance corresponding to the crack initiation from the test results, predicted by the first and second method, respectively

V c, V s :

Transverse shear resistance contributed by the concrete and the stirrups, respectively

V t, V T :

Shear force acted on the critical section of the beam and predicted transverse shear resistance

M ut, M u,T :

Bending moment acted on the critical section of the beam and predicted flexural resistance

PCS:

Prestressed concrete structure

RC:

Reinforced concrete

PC:

Prestressed concrete

LNG:

Liquid natural gas

LVDT:

Linear varying displacement transducer

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China entitled “Experimental study on material properties and structural behavior of prestressed concrete at cryogenic temperatures” (Project No. 51478309). The authors gratefully express their gratitude for the supports.

Funding

This study was funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Number 51478309).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Civil Engineering, Tianjin University, No. 92, Weijin Road, Tianjin, 300072, People’s Republic of China

    Jian Xie, Xi Chen, Jia-Bao Yan & Guangcheng Lei

  2. Key Laboratory of Coast Civil Structure Safety, Ministry of Education, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072, People’s Republic of China

    Jian Xie & Jia-Bao Yan

  3. Institute of Building Structures, China Academy of Building Research, Beijing, 100013, People’s Republic of China

    Limin Zhu

Authors
  1. Jian Xie
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  2. Xi Chen
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  4. Guangcheng Lei
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Correspondence to Jia-Bao Yan.

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Xie, J., Chen, X., Yan, JB. et al. Ultimate strength behavior of prestressed concrete beams at cryogenic temperatures. Mater Struct 50, 81 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1617/s11527-016-0956-8

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