Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this session, participants will be able to:
Describe the development of post-tensioned residential and commercial foundations, including Robert B. Anderson's contributions to the principles of slab stiffness, load distribution, and compressive behavior that underlie current PT design practice.
Explain how stiffness develops in a post-tensioned slab and how compressive forces are distributed through the system, in order to evaluate why PT foundations perform differently from conventional foundations on the expansive and low-bearing-capacity soils common to South Louisiana.
Identify the key provisions of ACI/PTI CODE-320 as the first joint ACI/PTI code for post-tensioned structural concrete, and assess how the migration of PT provisions out of ACI 318 will affect construction documents, specifications, and structural coordination on future projects.
Analyze a clinic project case study — from soil report data through final foundation design — and evaluate the criteria for selecting foam fill in lieu of conventional structural fill, including performance drivers and cost implications.