Reliability analysis of two-way flat plate floor slab systems

In concrete design, progress has been made in revising the current ACI-318 concrete building code to conform to reliability based design specifications. Among the structural components commonly used in concrete buildings is the two-way floor slab. While rigorous reliability analyses have been performed for structural components such as beams and columns, none has been done for the two-way slab system. In order to provide a comprehensive transition to a reliability based concrete design code in future editions of the ACI code, it is necessary to study the reliability index of two-way slab systems using current design practices. This study will serve as a guide to update future design specifications so that the designs will have consistent reliability based on rational assessment. In this thesis, the reliability index for a range of load values and slab sizes is computed. Comments on the reliability index of both the direct design method and finite element method are offered in the discussion of results and conclusions of this thesis.