This issue of the Magazine of Concrete Research includes the second tranche of papers from the Symposium on Concrete Plasticity held at Cambridge in July 2007 to mark the retirement of Dr Chris Morley.
The papers here cover the behaviour of concrete beams in shear, which can only be properly understood in the context of the plasticity bound theorems. Strut-and-tie models for complex geometries rely on proper application of plasticity theory, especially at the nodes, as do deep beams.
The remaining papers show that there are still new developments in the application of plasticity theory to beams; the final papers show how plasticity theory can be applied to the design of complex structures, such as oil rigs, and why it is of fundamental importance to the proper design of buildings in areas prone to earthquakes.
Taken together, the papers presented at the Symposium show how plasticity theory, and the bound theorems that are derived from it, are essential to allow an understanding of the real behaviour of concrete structures.
