The Future of Prestressing Technology

Future buildings and other anchorage structure projects will require high strength, lightweight, earthquake resistance, fire resistance, and corrosion resistance, and the use of prestressed concrete can better meet these requirements. Because it is a combination of two high-strength materials, it can eliminate permanent cracks in the structure, and the structure has high strength, long life, good durability, and rarely needs maintenance. In addition, the vigorous use of lightweight concrete will make the structure lighter, better seismic performance.

On the other hand, the raw materials sand, gravel, and cement in prestressed concrete are basically inexhaustible. The amount of prestressing tendons (steel) is also very low, not only is much less than steel structure but also much less than ordinary reinforced concrete.

Therefore, the application of prestressed technology makes prestressed concrete structures one of the most important and promising structures in the world. Looking to the future, the development of prestressing technology can be simply summarized into the following aspects:

1. The scope of application is getting wider and wider, and the number of applications is increasing

In the past, prestressing technology was mainly used for concrete structures such as highways, railways, bridges, oil tanks, water towers, pressure pipes, and railway sleepers. Now it has expanded to new areas such as high-rise buildings, underground constructions, marine engineering, pressure vessels, nuclear power plant engineering, television towers, ground anchors, foundation engineering, lifting and transportation, and is also constantly entering newer areas. In the future, it will inevitably be more widely used in various structural engineering and other fields. In terms of the number of applications, it will also increase rapidly in the future with the continuous expansion of application fields and the large-scale development of buildings and other structural engineering.

2. The prestressed tendons are developing in the direction of high strength, low relaxation, large diameter, and corrosion resistance

In the future, the prestressed steel will use 7×φ5mm steel strand with tensile strength exceeding 1900MPa and relaxation rate not exceeding 2.5%, high-strength steel wire with φ7mm and φ9mm, and quenched and tempered heat-treated steel bars with a diameter of 16mm or more and tensile strength of 1450MPa, and large-diameter finish-rolled rebar with a tensile strength of 1100MPa. Develop and use new or special prestressed tendon products, such as stainless steel products, polymer-coated products, ultra-high-strength products, and high-corrosion-resistant carbon fiber polymer products.

3. High-efficiency prestressed anchorage system

In the future, the prestressed anchorage system will be very perfect. Within a certain range, the tonnage of the prestressed anchor can be selected arbitrarily according to actual needs, and it is convenient to use, safe and reliable.

4. Mature prestressing construction technology

In the future, prestressed construction will develop towards industrialization and specialization, realize the standardization of construction technology, and implement automatic control and management by computer.

5. Continuous improvement of prestressing design and calculation theory

In the future prestressing concrete or other structures, with the continuous improvement of prestressing design and calculation theory, the calculation method will become simple and reliable, and the prestressing design will become convenient and easy.