Longitudinal Prestressing of Composite Bridges

Current developments in the field of steel-concrete composite bridges focus largely on the durability and in-service performance of the concrete deck slab. Indeed, one of the major concerns of designers is to attempt to limit slab cracking, especially full-depth transverse cracking. Amongst the most frequently suggested measures applicable to steel-concrete composite bridges, longitudinal prestressing remains a feasible solution for composite structures where transverse cracking is to be limited or eradicated altogether. The aim of this investigation is to review current prestressing techniques, to investigate the behaviour of the deck slab over a period of time, to establish the most suitable parameters to limit tensile stresses in the slab and to develop a simplified approach for the calculation of prestressing losses.