PT Design Resources
Are you just getting started on a new post-tensioning design project? Are you able to quickly establish some basic slab thickness guidelines early on in your PT projects, or are you looking for great resources to guide the early schematic design phase of your projects?
In the December 2025 SEU session, Carine Leys, from WSP, presented The Design Arc of Post-Tensioning. Carine explained how to evaluate during the conceptual phase if post-tensioning is a structural solution that meets the project’s performance requirements. She reviewed ways to develop comprehensive documentation relevant to each phase of the project and identified best practices during construction to ensure safety and durability.
Carine offered several resources for PT design as shown on the slide below. These include Restraint Cracks and Their Mitigation in Unbonded Post-Tensioned Building Structures from PTI. This document provides details and considerations for pour strip placements, duration of pour strips, and details to mitigate cracks. Carine also recommends the Post-Tensioning Manuel, Seventh Edition, from PTI. This reference is excellent for early preliminary sizing and examples to use without having to do much analysis, especially early on in the schematic phase of a project. This is especially useful if the engineer does not yet have years of experience with PT design.
The two additional resources Carine mentioned are Post-Tensioned Buildings Design and Construction and Post-Tensioning Concepts; Design; Construction, both by Bijan O. Aalami. These references are useful and practical for the design engineer during the design and construction phase of PT projects.
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