Wedges

Anchorages and wedges are manufactured in different ways for different applications. They follow the American Concrete Institute (ACI) code 318, which fundamentally states that the anchorage system is guaranteed up to 95% of the breaking strength of the strand (TU) (ACI). For projects that require higher tensile strengths, there are various kinds of multi-strand anchors which can accommodate from 2 to 156 strands. The larger anchors are mainly used in cable stayed bridges to hold up the roadway, while the smaller anchors are used in more common applications such as a highway overpass or a parking garage. For our testing we used monostand anchorages, so we wouldn’t be dealing with immense amounts of released energy while breaking the strand. Wedges sit in the anchor and grip onto the strand to hold it in place. They are manufactured in two- and three- parts, both of which we have tested

The wedge anchor uses the wedge principle to anchor the strand, that is, wedge-shaped clamping piece wedges strand into the wedge-shaped taper hole of anchor plate, when using jack to tension the strand, after achieving the designed stress value, the jack is slowly released, the anchor of the wedge is retracted into the tapered hole of the anchor plate to form an anchor unit by strand, the stress of the steel strand passes the anchor plate to the building structure to form a permanent prestress.