Full-scale, low-temperature mechanical testing of prestressing systems

For a number of industrial applications, concrete prestressing elements are exposed to extremely low temperatures during their lifetime. This can cause concerns regarding their possible embrittlement. The investigation of the mechanical properties of individual materials of these systems at different temperatures is a routine task. Numerical methods are a reliable method for the calculation of stress and strain fields in complex geometry systems and load patterns, as long as a good knowledge of initial and boundary conditions is available. Temperature-dependent material properties can also be taken into consideration. The increased complexity of the calculations for a system under thermal and mechanical loads leads to a higher level of uncertainty in the results, as its cost in terms of required input and computing time increases. The obstacles in the way to a reliable numerical assessment of the safety of the operation of a prestressing system under extreme thermal conditions make the execution of full-scale system tests advantageous, in spite of the costs arising from the development of suitable technical means.