2020 Volume 76 Issue 1 Pages 41-54
For prestressed concrete structures, it is important to apply and maintain the required tensile force of the prestressing cable. During the construction and in the service period, in order to directly evaluate the distribution of tensioning force along the whole length of a prestressing cable, a new measuring method by using the optical fiber sensor has been developed. In this study, measurement performance tests were conducted, and it was verified that the optical fiber sensor can be integrated with the PC-strand and the distribution of tensioning force can be measured accurately. Furthermore, this new method was applied to a post-tensioned prestressed concrete viaduct. It was confirmed that, the distribution of tensioning force can be measured even in the actual structure, and it can be directly confirmed that the installed prestressing force exceeded the designed value, along the whole length of the cable. This method can be effectively used for the maintenance of PC structures, in addition to the control of prestressing.
