Reinforced concrete, widely used in the construction industry, is a composite material composed of concrete as the base matrix material and steel reinforcing structures. The concrete base material can resist large compressive stresses but fails quickly under tensile loading. Steel reinforcing absorbs the tensile stresses so that the composite material can better withstand compressive and tensile loadings.

The engineering design process for concrete structures includes determining the load limits at which a given structure fails. The problem presented here demonstrates a load-limit analysis for a reinforced concrete slab under surface-pressure loading [1].