This article proposes the use of steel strain difference to analyse the tensile membrane action regions of two-way concrete slabs with relation to deflection while accounting for two failure criteria. The maximum load-bearing capacities and ultimate deflections of two-way slabs are subsequently determined. The proposed approach is compared with other theoretical methods and a numerical model of horizontally unrestrained concrete slabs presented by different authors. The rationality of the proposed method is validated through satisfactory comparison with results from experiments and numerical simulations.
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