ABSTRACT
Prestressed concrete is the most recent of the major forms of construction to be introduced into structural engineering. Although several patents were taken out in the last century for various prestressing schemes, they were unsuccessful because low-strength steel was used, with the result that long-term effects of creep and shrinkage of the concrete reduced the prestress force so much that any advantage was lost. It was only in the early part of the twentieth century that the French engineer Eugène Freyssinet approached the problem in a systematic way and, using high-strength steel, first applied the technique of prestressing concrete successfully. Since then prestressed concrete has become a well-established method of construction, and the technology is available in most developed, and in many developing, countries. An account of some of the early developments in prestressed concrete is given in Walley (1984).
