Improved thick plate analysis and design

Pile cap and transfer plate are typical thick plates requiring special care in analysis and design. From several real jobs in Hong Kong, the authors have discovered some limitations of the currently adopted thick plate analysis and design methods. To overcome such limitations, the authors have developed a new shear deformable beam, based on which a shear deformable rectangular plate is also formulated. This new formulation is based on minimisation of energy without the adoption of bubble functions or substitute shear strain and is hence easy to visualise, able to give very high accuracy even for a coarse mesh, free from the shear locking phenomenon which is often found in the thick plate elements commonly adopted in Hong Kong. In addition, the authors have also discussed the basic principles and general guidelines for the economic design of reinforcements with consideration of the twisting moment in reinforced concrete structures.