Developments and research on fire response behaviour of prestressed concrete members – A review

• Published in: Journal of Building Engineering 2022-10, Vol.57, p.104797, Article 104797
• Main Authors: Jeyashree, T.M., Kannan Rajkumar, P.R., Satyanarayanan, K.S.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aggregate type; Concrete cover; Critical temperature; Fire failure; Polypropylene fibres
• ISSN: 2352-7102; 2352-7102
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jobe.2022.104797

Prestressed concrete is widely used for various types of structural applications, and unexpected fire during its service life can lead to premature tendon rupture. Prestressed tendons in high tensile stress are vulnerable to fracture at elevated temperatures and result in low fire resistance due to spalling of concrete with temperature rise. A good understanding of the failure mechanism and fire response behaviour of prestressed members would lead to the development of prestressed concrete members with enhanced fire resistance. In this article, a detailed and elaborate literature survey on the performance of prestressed concrete members under elevated temperature has been undertaken. The fire response behaviour of prestressed concrete members has been extensively studied, and various research studies highlighting the critical temperature and failure mechanism of concrete and prestressing steel are discussed. The factors responsible for bond strength degradation were determined from the literature. The parameters influencing the fire performance of prestressed concrete members are also identified and the parameters such as concrete cover, aggregate type, the volume of polypropylene fibres, and cement blend with a lesser amount of silica fume are found to have a significant effect on improving fire resistance. The fire response of sustainable precast prestressed members with Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) tendons was also studied and it has been found that the performance of such members under elevated temperature depends mainly on concrete ingredients and volume of polypropylene fibres used in concrete. •Factors affecting the fire behaviour of prestressed members are identified.•Role of concrete ingredients on fire response of CFRP prestressed members is discussed.•Concrete ingredients to enhance fire performance of prestressed members are proposed.