26. Seismic Behavior of Partially Prestressed Concrete Structures

The demand for buildings and bridge structures with long spans and light weight which are able to sustain against dynamic loads are increasing in recent years. To overcome natural weakness of concrete in tension, prestressed concrete method is one of the best ways. Partially prestressed concrete structures fill the gap between fully prestressed concrete structures and conventional reinforced concrete (RC) structures which are now accepted and applied by many engineers. Although considerable effort has been made for evaluation of seismic-resistant of RC structures, little information is available on the behavior of monolithic partially prestressed concrete (PPC) and prefabricated partially prestressed concrete (IBS) structures against earthquake. In the present paper, seismic response of PPC and IBS frames are evaluated and damage plasticity theory is implemented in order to investigate the behavior of concrete in tension and compression. For this purpose, finite element model of the PPC and IBS frames is developed and pushover, cyclic and time history analysis are conducted to simulate the seismic response. Comparison of the obtained results from PPC and IBS frames with the conventional RC frames shows significant improvement for PPC and IBS structures subjected to both severe gravity and dynamic loads simultaneously.