Investigation of Bursting Forces in Post Tensioned Anchorage Zone

* Hyo-Gyoung Kwak 1), Joung Rae Kim2) and Minsuk Shim3)

1), 2) ,3)
Department of Civil Engineering, KAIST, Daejeon 305-600, Korea
1)
[email protected]
2)
[email protected]
3)
[email protected]

ABSTRACT

Three dimensional (3D) finite element (FE) analyses for post-tensioned anchorage
zone were conducted to calculated bursting stress and bursting force. The structural
behavior was investigated through the linear elastic finite element analyses with various
design parameters such as the bearing plate size, the eccentricity, and the tendon
inclination. Also effect of duct hole to bursting stress and bursting force was analysed
with various diameter. Parametric analyses were followed to evaluate the relative
contribution of all design parameters in determining the bursting force. Since the
bursting force in AASHTO-LRFD is based on two dimensional anchorage model without
duct hole, comparisons with the results and AASHTO-LRFD were conducted. Finally,
an improved design guideline which considers the effect of the duct hole is suggested.

1. INTRODUCTION
In post tensioned prestressed concrete (PSC) beams with mechanical anchorages,
the prestressing force is applied through tendons and load concentration occurs at the
anchorages. On the basis of St Venant principle, uniformly distributed stress is
occurred at concrete section far away from the anchorage. Closer to the anchorage,
however, the distribution of stress in the concrete is more complex. The dispersion of
the high local stress under the anchorage causes transvers tensile stress, which may
crack the concrete. Accordingly, this transverse tensile stresses referred as bursting
stresses have to be determined to arrange proper reinforcements.
With the understanding of the stress distribution in the anchorage zone, considerable
efforts have been dedicated in evaluating the tensile force for the placement of
reinforcements (Guyon 1953, Burdet 1990, He and Liu 2011) on the basis of many
mechanical concepts such as the theory of elasticity, the finite element (FE) analysis,

1)
Professor
2)
Doctoral Candidates
3)
Master Candidates
and the strut-and-tie method as well as experimental approaches. Related
comprehensive reviews on previous research can be found elsewhere (Breen et al.
1994, Rogowsky and Marti 1996, Songwut 2004, Callaghan and Bayrak 2008, Zhou el
al. 2015). Moreover, many experimental and numerical studies have allowed the
obtained results to be implemented in many design codes (Schlaich et al. 1987, Burdet
1990, Wollman 1992, Sanders and Breen 1997).
In particular, the design formula mentioned in the AASHTO-LRFD design guidelines
(AASHTO-LRFD 2012), which was introduced through extensive finite element
analyses by Burdet (1990) to provide guidance for designing the anchorage zone, is
popularly used in the design practice and evaluation of the bursting force of the design
code is introduced as shown in Eq. (1)

念 a
s t 0 .2 檍
Tb u r = 5 惡
惡 1-
曜 h
+ .0 5| ( (P as )i)n | (1)

,where P is the applied anchor load, a is the width of the bearing plate, h is the height
of the anchorage block, and α is the inclination of the duct tube.
Since the design code was suggested basically on the basis of two dimensional (2D)
FE analyses which can’t consider three dimensional (3D) effect of duct hole, this
equation usually gives conservative results in most cases. As is well known from the
elastic theory, the hole within the elastic body causes a stress concentration. When an
infinite plate with a circular hole is subjected to uniform stress on two parallel edges far
removed from the hole, then the developed maximum stress will be three times the
applied stress. This means that the duct hole may cause not only the stress
concentration but also the change in a stress distribution around the hole.
In this paper, many parametric studies to evaluate the relative contribution of all
design parameters in determining the bursting force have been conducted on the basis
of 3D FE analyses with ABAQUS, and then an improved formula to evaluate the
bursting force in the post-tensioned anchorage zones is suggested.

2. Geometric and Structural Properties

Since the numerical analyses conducted in this paper are based on a linear elastic
analysis, the stress-strain relations of concrete and steel do not need to be defined.
Only the modulus of elasticity and Poisson’s ratio for concrete and steel are required.
The elastic modulus of concrete and steel is defined according to the formulas
𝑬𝒄 = 𝟖, 𝟓𝟎𝟎 𝟑√𝒇′𝒄 = 𝟑𝟓, 𝟎𝟎𝟎𝐌𝐏𝐚 and 𝑬𝒔 = 𝟐𝟏𝟎𝐆𝐏𝐚 defined in the KCI design code
(2009), respectively, and the Poisson’s ratios for concrete and steel have values of
𝝂𝒄 = 𝟎. 𝟏𝟖 and 𝝂𝒔 = 𝟎. 𝟑𝟑.
Two different anchorage blocks, (1) the anchorage block without duct hole (see Fig.
1(a)), and (2) the anchorage block with anchorage duct hole (see Fig. 1(b)) are
considered to analysis the bursting stress distribution.
 (a) anchorage block without duct hole (b) anchorage block with duct hole
Fig. 1. Anchorage block model

To verify the reliability of the constructed FE model, the numerical results were
compared to those obtained by Burdet (1990), because Burdet’s numerical results
obtained from the linear elastic stress analyses were based on the construction of Eq.
(1). Fig. 2 shows a typical example for the comparison of the bursting stress (𝜎𝑇 ) along
the length (x-direction in Fig. 2) between the Burdet’s results and the numerical results
obtained by the FE idealization used in Fig. 1, where the ratio of the bearing plate size
(𝐷𝑎 ) to the concrete block width (h) was assumed to be 0.3 and 𝜎0 in Fig. 2 means the
uniform average normal stress developed by the application of a concentrated load to
the anchorage head. As shown in this figure, the bursting stress distributions obtained
by the constructed FE idealization of the anchorage block is almost the same as that
obtained by Burdet, even though the maximum bursting stress shows a slight difference
of 0.014𝜎𝑜 , which is still negligibly small. This means that the slightly modified FE
idealization can effectively be used in the linear elastic analyses of anchorage blocks.

Fig. 2. Comparison of bursting stress in an anchorage block

3. Numerical analyses of anchorage block

Fig. 3 shows the section view of a test specimen with h=360mm and a=0.69h=250mm.
Since three dimensional FE analyses were carried out, two transverse stresses across
the central axis (the radial bursting stress 𝜎𝑦 and the tangential bursting stress 𝜎𝑧 )
were evaluated. Figs. 4 and 5 represent the stress contour lines and the stress
distributions along the central axis for the corresponding bursting stresses, respectively,
where 𝜎𝑜 = P/ℎ2 denotes the uniformly distributed basic stress. As expected, Fig. 5
shows that both stresses have the same values along the central axis because of the
symmetric condition. On the other hand, as shown in Fig. 4, the tangential bursting
stress shows the maximum value on the outer surface but a uniform distribution across
the depth, in contrast with the radial bursting stress (𝜎𝑦 ), which has the maximum value
at the very interior center point.

Fig. 3. Section view of the model in Fig. 1(a)

(a) Radial direction (y axis) (b) Tangential direction (z axis)

Fig. 4. Bursting stress contour developed in the model in Fig. 1(a)

 Fig. 5. Bursting stress distribution along (a) position in Fig. 3

Numerical analysis with the specimen in Fig. 1(b) was performed. The diameter of the
duct hole(b) was assumed to be b=0.32h=114mm, and sections (c) and (d) correspond
to the duct hole surface and the point that produces the maximum radial bursting
stress 𝜎𝑦 , respectively (see Fig. 7).
Figs. 7 and 8 represent the stress contour lines and the stress distributions along the
length direction for the corresponding bursting stresses. As shown in Fig. 7, the
maximum radial bursting stress 𝜎𝑦 does not occur along the outer surface of the duct
hole and its magnitude is also negligibly small. However, the tangential bursting
stress 𝜎𝑧 shows the maximum value at the surface of the duct hole and its magnitude is
𝜎𝑧 = 0.23𝜎𝑜 , which is about 64% larger than the maximum bursting stress obtained at
the anchorage block without the duct hole (see Fig. 8). This means that the existence of
the duct hole causes a shift in the bursting stress distribution with an increase of the
tangential bursting stress and a decrease of the radial bursting stress. This shift in the
stress distribution has been maintained along the entire length of the anchorage block,
as shown in Fig. 8. Very similar results for the shift of the bursting stress distribution
were also obtained by Douglas and Trahair (1960) from their experimental study.
Accordingly, the bursting force needs to be evaluated on the basis of the tangential
bursting stress even in the case of the anchorage block with a duct hole.

Fig. 6. Section view of the model in Fig. 1(b)

 (a) Radial direction (y axis) (b) Tangential direction (z axis)
Fig. 7. Bursting stress contour developed in the model in Fig. 1(b)

(a) Stress distribution along (c) position

(b) Stress distribution along (d) position

Fig. 8. Bursting stress distribution along (c) and (d) positions in Fig. 6
4. Bursting force of anchorage block
Upon the parametric studies with variation in the size of the duct hole, the evaluated
bursting forces have been shown in Fig. 9. As shown in this figure, since the existence
of the duct hole slightly increases the bursting force together with an increase of the
bursting stress, the influence of the duct hole in the anchorage block needs to be
considered in the evaluation of the bursting force. However, the relative differences in
the bursting force according to the change in the size of duct hole are not as large as
expected. This result appears to be induced from characteristic that the maximum
tangential bursting stress is not increased in proportion to the size of the duct hole but
maintains almost constant values, as shown in Fig. 9, in the case of adopted test
specimens with the size of the duct hole ranging from 74mm (equivalent to 0.21h) to
134mm (equivalent to 0.37h). However, since the size of the duct hole in real structures
is about 0.2h, the test specimens are sufficient to cover the influence of the duct hole,
in a real structure. Accordingly, the design equation in Eq. (1), which does not take into
𝑎
account the influence of the duct hole, needs to be revised to T𝑏𝑢𝑟𝑠𝑡 = 0.28𝑃 (1 − ℎ) for
an anchorage block with a square bearing plate.

Fig. 9. Bursting force in the anchorage block with a duct hole

5. Conclusion
An improved equation to predict the bursting tensile force in the anchorage block is
proposed through parametric studies, and no additional understanding is required in
using the introduced equation because it maintains the same form and expression as
suggested in AASHTO-LRFD. The introduced equation can effectively be used in the
preliminary design stage to determine the amount of anchorage reinforcement and to
estimate the safety for cracking in the anchorage zone. Nevertheless, an additional
verification process through many experimental tests may be required prior to its use as
a standard design equation in practice.
Parametric studies to evaluate the influence of many design variables lead to the
following conclusions: (1) Eq. (1) currently used in the design may underestimate the
bursting force, which may lead to an unsafe design of the anchorage block; (2) the
influence of the duct hole must be considered in the evaluation of the bursting force;

Acknowledgements
This research was supported by a grant(17RDRP-B076268-04) from R&D Program
funded by Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport of Korean government and
Korea Minister of Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) as 「U-City
Master and Doctor Course Grant Program.

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