Finite Element Axisymmetric Models for Conical Wedge Anchorage Used in the Production of Prestressed Steel Reinforced Concretes

Abstract

The anchor system plays a very important part of the prestressed structure, that contacts and transmits force to the cables when stretching to create residual stress. The operating conditions of the anchor system in general and the anchor core in particular are extremely harsh. In this paper, <I>ABAQUS</I> software was applied to model and numerically simulate the axisymmetric loading process of the anchor core in manufacturing prestressed concrete sleepers, to study the effects of tensile forces to the pressure resistance of the cylinder. To verify the analytical results, a Finite Element (<I>FE</I>)-model with the same material and geometrical properties was created. The difference is the assumption of plane stress in the analytical solution, can be solved using two - dimensional finite elements, which are most conveniently described in cylindrical (<i>r, θ, z</i>) coordinates. This articles also especially focused on calculating the change of stress on the edges of the anchor core teeth with different tensile forces. We also refered to experimental results to get data on traction force and working conditions to build a calculation model and select input parameters. Comparison of the stress generated on the teeth of the anchor core was performed with three different tensions of <i>171, 181</i> and <i>191 kN</i>. The maximum and concentrated stress at the top and root of the anchor core when tensioning the cable has been calculated.