Post-tensioned concrete provides a light, structurally efficient, durable solution for the construction of commercial office buildings, residential apartments, high-rise condominiums, and mixed-use facilities such as hotels and casinos. Longer, thinner slabs result in greater design flexibility and require less reinforcing steel to achieve the same strength as other methods of construction.
Advantages of Post-Tensioned Building Construction
- Significant reduction in the amount of concrete and reinforcing steel required.
- Thinner structural members as compared to non-prestressed concrete, resulting in lower overall building heights and reduced foundation loads.
- Aesthetically pleasing structures that harness the benefits of cast-in-place structures with curved geometries, longer cantilevers and slender members with large spaces between supports.
- Superior structural integrity as compared to precast concrete construction because of continuous framing and tendon continuity.
- Monolithic connections between slabs, beams, and columns that can eliminate troublesome joints between elements that require maintenance.
- Profiled tendons that result in balanced gravity loads (typically a portion of dead load only), significantly reducing total deflection.
- Better crack control, which results from permanent compressive forces applied to the structure during prestressing.
Reduction in overall building mass, which is important in zones of high seismicity.
- As compared to steel, non-prestressed concrete and precast construction offer faster floor construction cycles, lower floor weight, lower floor-to-floor height, larger spans between columns and reduced foundations.
- The high early-strength of post-tensioned concrete allows for faster floor construction cycles and the use of standard design details for post-tensioned elements, minimum congestion of prestressed and non-prestressed reinforcement, and earlier stripping of formwork after tendon stressing.