Ductility Evaluation of Prestressed Concrete Members

In this paper, moment-curvature behavior and ductility of prestressed concrete members based on nonlinear analysis is investigated. Influence of various design parameters on ductility of flexural members is determined according to appropriate materials models for stress-strain curves of concrete, prestressing steel and conventional reinforcements. Parameters studied include reinforcing index (ω ̅), compressive steel ratio, type of prestressing steel and cross-sectional shape of members. The reinforcing index is the most influential parameter on ductility of prestressed members. This variable contains the influence of several other parameters, such as compressive strength of concrete and reinforcing ratio, and links prestressed, ordinary reinforced and partially prestressed concrete sections. For maximum permissible reinforcing index of 0.36β1 based on ACI design code, curvature ductility is between 1.5 to 3.0 and for ω ̅=0.2, which is the maximum value allowed for moment redistribution, ductility is greater than 4.0, and for ω ̅ less than 0.1, a ductility of greater than 10.0 is achievable. Influence of magnitude of ultimate strength of prestressing steel and cross-sectional shape on ductility is insignificant. Confinement has considerable effect on ductility.