Automated determining the collapsed mechanism of reinforcedconcrete slabs by yield-line method

This paper present an automatic computer program to find the yield-line solution of any given trial finite element geometry and the least load required to activate the mechanism of the plate bending. The yield-line method is used with the non-linear optimization techniques to predict the ultimate load corresponding to a critical yield-line mechanism. In this method the plate is subdivided into triangular mesh and the yield-lines are restricted to occur only on the element boundaries. Numerical examples are demonstrated by comparing the present results with analytical or experimental solutions available in the literature