A study is presented of the behaviour of reinforced
concrete slab strips under the combined effect of bending and compressive membrane action. The existing methods for allowing for membrane action in predicting the plastic behaviour of reinforced concrete slabs are reviewed and their limitations outlined. A new theory of the plastic behaviour of materials with tension cracks based on 'total strain' and 'strain rate' flow rules is proposed and applied to problems of axially restrained concrete slab strips. The effect of elastic axial strains,
flexible restraints and physical gaps at the boundaries are carefully considered. The results of a series of experiments on slab strips designed to test the proposed theory are presented
