Richard Bareš's "Tables for the Analysis of Plates, Slabs and Diaphragms" serves as an essential, classic engineering manual for calculating internal forces and moments in planar structures based on elastic theory. The tables provide comprehensive, practical formulas for various load cases and boundary conditions, allowing for rapid, manual analysis of plates and slabs. Access a digital copy of the text through the Internet Archive.
Elastic theory tables for diaphragms provide: Richard Bareš's "Tables for the Analysis of Plates,
While FEA software is powerful, it is also fragile. A misplaced boundary condition in a finite element model can yield a 400% error in slab design. The elastic tables act as a sanity check. Table 2: Deflections and Moments in Circular Plates