ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on conventional prestressed concrete bridges. Prestressed concrete structures, using high-strength materials to improve serviceability and durability, are an attractive alternative for long-span bridges, and have been used worldwide since the 1950s. Concrete shrinkage is a time-dependent material behavior and mainly depends on the mixture of concrete, moisture conditions, and the curing method. Creep of concrete is a time-dependent inelastic deformation under sustained load and depends primarily on the maturity of the concrete at the time of loading. Advanced composites-fiber-reinforced plastics with their high tensile strength and good corrosion resistance work well in prestressed concrete structures. A cable is a group of prestressing tendons and the center of gravity of all prestressing reinforcement. A two-span continuous cast-in-place prestressed concrete box-girder bridge has two equal spans of length 48 m with a single-column bent. Pretensioning systems are methods in which the strands are tensioned before the concrete is placed.
