All over the world serious damage in post- and prestressed components has occurred due to stress corrosion cracking of prestressed steel during the past 40 years. Because the associated design, execution and building materials used were not unusual this problem has caused great concern. An important factor is that prestressed steel is unable to withstand the combined effects of variable quality of construction and corrosion within the construction itself. As a result, some important measures and changes have been introduced to reduce the occurrence of damage related to stress corrosion cracking. They include improved standards and recommendations for planning and execution of new constructions and for strengthening older structures. Research has been done to develop non- destructive measuring techniques to investigate older prestressed constructions. Building materials which cannot guarantee durable protection of the embedded steel have been forbidden, and more effective control (e. g. testing the resistance of prestressing steel against stress corrosion cracking) can now prevent unsuitable materials coming on the market.
