A FINITE ELEMENT APPROACH TO POST-ELASTIC SLAB BEHAVIOR

A METHOD IS GIVEN FOR A COMPUTER ANALYSIS OF A REINFORCED CONCRETE SLAB WHICH PREDICTS THE COMPLETE BEHAVIOR OF THE SLAB AND PRODUCES DEFLECTIONS AND CRACK PATTERNS FOR THE TOTAL RANGE OF LOADING FROM ZERO TO ULTIMATE. MODIFIED FINITE ELEMENTS ARE USED, AND MOST OF THE ACTUAL CHANGES TAKING PLACE AS THE CONCRETE CRACKS AND THE REINFORCEMENT YIELDS AT A SECTION ARE CONSIDERED. THE ANALYSIS IS COMPARED WITH EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS FOR A PARTICULAR SLAB AND BOTH CRACK PATTERNS AND LOAD DEFLECTION CURVES AGREE QUITE CLOSELY, APART FROM CERTAIN SIGNIFICANT EXCEPTIONS. /ACI/