ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with a general way with plates but many of the applications are virtually limited to reinforced concrete slabs. An elastic analysis of a reinforced concrete slab gives no indication of its ultimate load-carrying capacity and further analyses have to be made for this condition. The yield-line method of analysis gives an upper bound to the ultimate load capacity of a reinforced concrete slab by a study of assumed mechanisms of collapse. Wherever the load-dispersion discontinuity lines are not parallel to the support lines of the particular strip, the maximum moment varies from strip to strip. The advantage of the strip method is that the reactions to strips are known and hence the loading on any supporting beam is immediately established. Ultimate load designs according to the yield-line or strip methods do not guarantee safety against cracking or excessive deformations.
