Behaviour of Prestressed Concrete End Blocks


C. J. Burgoyne
Lecturer, Engineering Department, Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK
T. J. Ibell
Research Student, Engineering Department, Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK

This paper briefly reports on a series of experiments carried out on strip-loaded prestressed concrete end blocks. The results show that corresponding design methods presently used in Europe are conservative. In all cases, failure of the end blocks was by initial cracking, followed by wedging punch-through of the plate.

When a large prestressing force is applied to the end of a beam over a small anchorage area, tensile bursting stresses are developed behind the anchor plate. The problem of analyzing the bursting stresses in concrete blocks under concentrated loading has been investigated in the past by several researches [Clarke, 1976; Guyon, 1974; Leonhardt, 1964; Morsch, 1924; VSL, 1975; Zielinski and Rowe, 1960]. Such work has led to commonly accepted empirical design methods for the detailing of steel reinforcement in end blocks.


The present experimental series was carried out in order to study the effect of steel quantity and positioning on the load carrying capacity of strip-loaded end blocks. The results from this test series are presently being used to verify upper- and lower- bound theories for the analysis of end blocks.


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