A study of the behavior of continuous partially prestressed two-span concrete beams loaded to failure is presented. Two parameters, the plastic adaptation ratio and the moment ratio, are defined and results from nonlinear finite element analyses of 94 beams are used to develop an approach based on these two parameters to determine the failure load of a continuous partially prestressed concrete beam. The approach is compared to that in two current design codes and is shown to give better predictions. A sample calculation showing how to determine the load carrying capacity of a two-span continuous prestressed beam is included.
