A new steel anchorage system for post-tensioning applications using carbon fibre reinforced plastic tendons

During the past half century, the use of prestressing in different structures has increased tremendously. One of the most important techniques of prestressing is post-tensioning. The main problem associated with post-tensioning in different structures is the corrosion of the prestressing steel tendons even with well-protected steel. New materials, fibre reinforced plastics or polymers (FRP), which are more durable than steel, can be used for these tendons/strands and thus overcome the corrosion problem. However, different shortcomings appear when FRP tendons are introduced to post-tensioning prestressing applications. For carbon fibre plastic tendons (CFRP), there is no suitable anchorage system for post-tensioning applications. Some of the anchorages developed by others for use with FRPs are therefore described and assessed. A new anchorage system developed by the authors, which can be used with bonded or unbonded CFRP tendons in post-tensioning applications, is described. The results of direct tension and fatigue tests on CFRPs anchored with the new system are presented.Key words: anchorage system, cyclic loading, fatigue, fibre reinforced plastics, finite element analysis, post-tension, prestressed concrete, prestressed masonry, strands, tendons.