Advantages and Market Trends of High-Strength PC Steel Strand

High-strength steel strands are steel products made by twisting multiple high-strength steel wires. With excellent mechanical properties, they are widely used in the engineering field. 

The following are their advantages:

Ⅰ. Main Classification (by Use and Process)

1. Prestressed Steel Strand

- Used to apply prestress in concrete structures. Common specifications include 1×7 (7 strands of steel wires), with a diameter of 9.5-17.8mm, and are widely used in bridges, building foundations, etc.

2. Galvanized Steel Strand

- The surface is hot-dip galvanized, with strong corrosion resistance, suitable for transmission line cable, marine engineering pile foundation, etc.

3. Epoxy-Coated Steel Strand

- The outer layer is coated with epoxy resin, which is insulated and anti-corrosive. It is mostly used in strong corrosive environments such as coastal bridges and sewage treatment pools.

4. Low-Relaxation Steel Strand

- Through heat treatment and tensile stabilization process, the stress relaxation rate is more than 50% lower than that of ordinary steel strand, which is suitable for large-scale projects with long-term load-bearing.

Ⅱ. Core Characteristics

- High strength and high toughness: The tensile strength is usually ≥1770 MPa, and some high-end products can reach more than 2000 MPa, and have good fatigue resistance (can withstand more than one million cyclic loads).

- Low relaxation: After stabilization treatment, the stress loss is small, which is suitable for long-term prestressed scenes (such as bridges and sleepers).

- Corrosion resistance: Through surface treatment such as galvanizing and epoxy coating, it can resist environmental erosion such as seawater, acid and alkali, and extend the service life (especially suitable for marine engineering and chemical scenes).

Ⅲ. Technical Advantages

- Strong bearing capacity: Under the same cross-sectional area, the tensile strength of steel strands is 3-5 times that of ordinary steel bars, which can reduce the amount of materials used and reduce the deadweight of the structure.

- High construction efficiency: Good flexibility, easy transportation and installation, suitable for complex structures (such as large-span bridge cables).

- Excellent economic efficiency: Low long-term maintenance costs, especially in corrosion-resistant scenarios, the life span is 2-3 times longer than that of ordinary steel.

- Performance upgrade: Research and develop steel strands with higher strength (such as 2200 MPa grade) and extreme temperature resistance (-100℃ to 300℃), suitable for high-end fields such as aerospace and deep-sea engineering.

- Green manufacturing: Promote low-energy heat treatment processes and chromium-free passivation coatings to respond to the "dual carbon" goals.

- Intelligent application: Combine sensors to monitor the stress state of steel strands to achieve real-time health warnings for engineering structures.

IV. Application Fields

- Construction and infrastructure: bridge main cables (such as the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge), prestressed floor slabs of high-rise buildings, tunnel support anchors, etc.

- New energy projects: offshore wind power pile foundation fixation, photovoltaic bracket lightweight structure, energy storage power station foundation reinforcement.

- Transportation and water conservancy: railway sleepers, reservoir dam prestressed components, port breakwater anchorage.

- Special scenarios: aerospace equipment support parts, military temporary fortifications, deep-sea engineering cables (need to resist high pressure and corrosion).

High-strength steel strands are penetrating from traditional infrastructure to new energy, high-end manufacturing and other fields with technological iteration and application expansion, becoming one of the core categories of modern engineering materials.