Bode Venkata Kavyatheja
Vertical expansion is the only possible solution to meet the growing need of accommodation in big cities all over the world as horizontal development is not a viable solution anymore due to high cost of land and the related environmental issues. So, high-rise building becomes an inevitable solution for this problem. Most of the modern architectural plans for high rise buildings are adopting column free spans with light partition walls for flexibility and reducing the dead load. As a result, the engineers face the challenge of designing column free large span slabs and at the same time minimising the dead load. The solution to this problem is provided by the prestressed slabs which have the advantage of larger spans and slenderness ratio, good behaviour in respect of deflections and cracking under permanent load, higher punching shear strength, reduction in construction time and overall economy. Joint efforts by researchers, design engineers and prestressing firms have resulted in the widespread use of post tensioned slabs all over the world. This method of construction is also picking up in India in recent times.
