GGU-CANTILEVER: "Pretensioning" menu item

Personal experience has shown that discussions surrounding the necessity for considering pretensioning are never-ending. Independently, the program enables pretensioning for anchors/struts to be taken into consideration

For anchors, pretensioning must be entered as positive. Faulty input is pointed out before analysis begins. From a structural perspective, the program inserts an action boundary condition equivalent in size and direction to the pretensioning force into the system at the appropriate depth.

Anchors are generally pretensioned at 80% and more of the resulting anchor force. This can be modelled with sufficient accuracy using a high axial rigidity EA without pretensioning. If you wish to analyse more precisely, specify the axial rigidity EA according to the selected anchor and define a pretensioning force. Following analysis, the selected pretensioning force must be examined against the results. This generally requires an iteration process by the user.

The same applies to struts.