Limit State Analysis of Reinforced Concrete Plates subjected to in-plane forces

A finite element formulation of rigid-plastic plates subjected to in-plane forces is developed using stress-based elements and linear programming. Three elements are established, namely a triangular plate element, a bar element and a beam element. The problem is formulated as a lower bound solution, and the dual variables are interpreted as displacements. Both load and material optimization are formulated. The method is applied to concrete plate structures modelling both the distributed and the concentrated reinforcement. An efficient computational scheme is used, thereby reducing the size of the problem. Finally, numerical examples are presented to show the capabilities of the method.