Measured temperature effects during the construction of a prestressed precast concrete bridge beam

Prestress losses in precast concrete beams include the short-term effects of elastic shortening and the long-term effects of concrete shrinkage, concrete creep and steel relaxation. Temperature effects are, however, excluded. The aim of this research was to monitor the behaviour of a prestressed precast concrete bridge beam, focussing on temperature effects and destressing. Successful monitoring assists in comparing the real performance of a structure to the expected design performance, and in managing the durability of the monitored structure. The effect of temperature variation on strains in prestressed beams was investigated by instrumenting a precast beam. Temperature and strains were monitored from the day of casting up to and including the cutting of the pretensioning strands. Daily temperature variations causing vertical non-linear temperature profiles resulted in internal strains of up to 28 % of the strains caused by destressing. It was therefore concluded that thermal effects before destressing resulting from elevated curing temperatures and daily temperature changes should be considered in the calculation of prestress losses. The monitoring techniques used were successful in determining the stresses and strains within the beam, which can be used to compare real prestress losses with the losses assumed in design.