Membrane action — where it appears
Named by 2 essays across 2 fields — each of them below, with the objects they name alongside it.
The surface that carries by being curved
A flat plate spends its thickness on a lever arm of a few millimetres. Curve the same sheet and the load is carried in the surface itself, at a thirtieth of the thickness — and the entire bill is presented at the edges.
The force nobody put in the model
A slab strip whose ends cannot move apart is not the strip in the yield-line calculation. Deflecting shortens the chord between its ends, the ends do not come in, and the strip is forced into an arch — worth four times the load it was designed for, at a movement nobody would see.
Named alongside it
The objects these essays reach for when they reach for this one.
CompatibilityHorizontal thrustAlternative load pathBoundaryCatenaryCollapse mechanismFunicularHoop forceLimit pointNo tension materialProgressive collapseRestraint