Yield Line Analysis:

Rectangular Orthotropic
Slab Examples

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 Yield Line Analysis

Concrete beams tend to exhibit limited plastic rotation

Concrete Slabs are usually under-reinforced, therefore can

Hence slabs can be designed or analyzed using plastic

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 Tests on Square Simply Supported Slabs
Cracked lines of rotation appear – Yield Lines.
The slab forms four ‘rigid’ regions which rotate about the yield lines.

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Deflections of Points A,B and C on the Slab:
It can be seen that deflections at B and C are similar, Ais at the centre of the slab.

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It can be seen that the deflections from the edge of the slab to the centre are almost linear –
confirming that the assumption of rotating rigid regions is valid.

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Idealised schematic of the yield line pattern
Two diagonal yield lines form

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 Tests on Square Fixed Edge Slabs
Additional yield lines form at the edges of the slab

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Additional Yield Lines form at the slab fixed edges:

Typical Support Notation:

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Yield line calculations satisfy Equilibrium and Mechanism conditions, but
do not necessarily satisfy Yield conditions.

This would tend to mean that the calculations would tend to over-estimate
the load carrying capacity of the slab (upper bound). NOT SAFE!!

HOWEVER:

There are two important factors which mean that in practice it is safe, namely:

1. Strain hardening of reinforcement – tends to increase strength by around 10%

2. Membrane (in-plane) forces – discussed on the next slides

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• Tensile Membrane action

Compression ring will tend to increase load

• Compressive Membrane Action

Up to 200% increase in load carrying capacity!!

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Rules for Determining Collapse Mechanisms:

Rigid regions rotate about yield lines and the following rules apply:

1. Yield lines are (usually) straight and are axes of rotation.

2. Yield lines must end at a slab boundary.

3. Axes of rotation lie along supported edges, cut unsupported

4. The axes of rotation of adjacent rigid regions have a point of

5. There are often negative yield lines along at least part of a fixed edge.

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Typical Yield Line Patterns

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Moment along a Yield Line

Total moment of resistance of bars crossing the yield line: Mlsinθ

Component of Moment along the yield line Mn : MnL= MLsinθ x sinθ → Mn = M sin2θ

Assuming perpendicular reinforcement is present also:

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Typical notation for reinforcement is shown. The factor µ indicates that there can be different
moments of resistance provided by the reinforcement in each orthogonal direction.

When µ = 1

Mn = M(sin2θ +cos2θ)

Mn = M

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The Calculations – Square Simply Supported Slab

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 Rectangular Orthotropic Slab
The point of intersection of the positive yield lines depends on the side lengths and the orthotropic
reinforcement ratios.

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Idealised Yield Line pattern
Loading : UDL ‘q’ per unit area
Line load ‘Q’ per unit length along centreline

q
Q

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External work

External Work – simplified expression

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Internal work – vector components in ‘x’ direction:

Total internal work (2 ends of slab)

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Internal work – vector components in ‘y’ direction:

There is a similar expression for the

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 Total Internal Work:

Equating External and Internal Work:

This equation relates M, the moment of resistance to q and Q the loadings. The critical value of
the variable β is the value that gives the largest value of M for a given q and Q, or vice versa.
Hence, minimise in the usual fashion by differentiating M or q & Q with respect to β

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To illustrate this process, to simplify the calcs assume the line load ‘Q’ = 0

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Take positive root:

Back substitute into the work equation to obtain either M or q

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 Rectangular Orthotropic Slab – Mixed Supports

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Equating External and internal work gives the following equation:

This can be differentiated with respect to each variable – but will be a challenge!

Use a trial and error approach (much easier – can be programmed in excel)

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