Advantages

• 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 compare 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 (typcally 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.

Application

Concrete construction applications for mono-strand systems includes

• elevated slabs
• slab-on-grade
• beams and transfer girders
• Joists, shear walls and mat foundations.