Abstract
Numerical studies were carried out to investigate long-term behavior of flat plates, subjected to combined in-plane compressive and transverse loads. For the numerical studies, a computer program of nonlinear finite element analysis was developed. It can address creep and shrinkage as weel as geometrical and material nonlinearity, and also it can address various load combinations and loading sequences of transverse load, in-plane compressive load and time. This numerical method was verified by comparison with the existing experiments. Parametric studies were performed to investigate the strength variations of flat plates with four parameters; 1) loading sequence of floor load, compressive load and time 2) uniaxial and biaxial compression 3) the ratio of dead to live load 4) span length. Through the numerical studies, the behavioral characteristics of the flat plates and the governing load combinations were examined. These results will be used to develop a design procedure for the long-term behavior of flat plates in the future.