Tensile membrane action in concrete slabs: investigation of the influence of reinforcement curtailment based on a real-scale test set-up

Various structural failures in the second half of the 20th century have demonstrated that adequate collapse-resistance cannot be achieved by designing the individual elements of a structure without considering their interconnectivity. When a certain support is lost due to an accidental event or when a hyperstatic concrete slab is excessively loaded, very large deflections may be induced in floor slabs of buildings and tensile membrane forces might be activated in order to establish a load transfer to the remaining supports. This behaviour can considerably enhance the ultimate load-carrying capacity compared to estimates obtained from small deformation theories.