Any practitioner who takes his profession in earnest, such that daily work is not a heavy duty but part of their life, will recognize in this book the rigorousness of the analysis and the comprehensive presentation of the problems. This professional attitude is solely able to make the research and design engineer deal with strength structures and their behaviour. Indeed, the computational means that are nowadays available permit the numerical computation of whatever problem; the pro­ gram libraries are extremely rich and programs themselves have developed intensively. Howeyer, though computers are available at any moment without restrictions on the frequency with which they are employed, they finally impoYerish the creative compe­ tency of the civil engineer. Thus, he will calculate increasingly more while devising increasingly less. He will draw less and less on the experience gained in devising and implementing bearing structures because the computational process can be repeated as often as desired over a minimum time-period by means of the available programs. \Ve note that nowadays structures are no longer investigated or economically designed to comply with the requirements of the topic of interest. :Much to the contrary, the solutions are chosen so as to comply with the capabilities of the programs. A bearing structure lives as is prescribed by its initial con­ structive data.

1. Introduction.- 1.1 Aim of the book.- 1.2 State of the art. Main research trends.- 1.3 Scope of the book.- 2. New mathematical models for the deflected middle surface of plates.- 2.1 Preliminarics.- 2.2 Equations of the middle surface of plates deflected by loads of type P, M and q.- 2.3 Algorithms for computing elastic displacements, sectional stresses and boundary reactions.- 3. Behaviour of plates subjected to a surface couple.- 3.1 Aim of the numerical study. Computation parameters and grid.- 3.2 Factors influencing the magnitude and distribution of elastic displacements of plates subjected to a surface couple.- 3.3 Factors influencing the magnitude and distribution of stresses in plates subjected to a surface couple.- 3.4 Accuracy of numerical computations.- 4. Elastic plates as structural members.- 4.1 Slab structures subjected to transverse loads. Effect of M- and P-type loads.- 4.2 Slab structures subjected to lateral loads. Evaluation of the effective slab width.- 5. A new method for the elastic analysis of slab structures.- 5.1 Use of the general force method. Transverse and in-plane loads.- 5.2 Use of the general displacement method. In-plane loads.- 6. Introduction to the dynamic analysis of slab structures.- 6.1 Calculation elements for the dynamic analysis of slab structures.- 6.2 Behaviour of slab structures subjected to dynamic action. Comparative numerical studies.- Conclusions.- Reference.- Author index.