Reinforced, partially prestressed concrete water tank walls

In previous works the authors presented an extensive full-scale test series on partially prestressed concrete panels representing water storage tank walls subjected to water pressure. Besides producing valuable strength data, the test program showed no leakage through the cracks with a flexural compression zone, The current paper follows with a simulation of the test results and a parametric study intended to expand the database. This paper presents only a few segments of the full study, including the ratio of reinforcing steel to prestressing steel and the eccentricity effects on the depth of the compression zone and the level of reinforcing steel stress and residual compressive stress in the cross section. A unified design approach is then presented, based an the assumption that a decision can be made on allowable leakage either by limiting the crack width to allow autogenic healing under direct tension or by defining the depth of the compression zone under eccentric tension.