Prestressed masonry for reservoirs: a project of the engineer Eduardo Torroja

Abstract

The project of prestressed reinforced concrete structures meant, in general, the use of one of the systems protected by the patents available. Now, the use of prestressing is very common but fifty-five years ago this technique was quite expensive, due to the fees that had to be paid for the use of a system protected by a patent. In the 50 's Eduardo Torroja started some research dedicated to finding a way to build prestressed structures without using a patented system. One of his solutions consisted in building a masonry brick wall reinforced with the usual steel bars and, as a result of a special method used for its construction, he achieved a compressed concrete layer that makes it possible .to have a waterproof wall for building a water reservoir. Following his system. Torroja designed a reservoir built in Madrid that still exists but is not in use