Structural Design and Construction · Lesson 23 of 27

Diaphragms and Lateral Force-Resisting Systems

Treat the floor or roof diaphragm as a deep horizontal beam that gathers wind and seismic force at each level and hands it to the shear walls and frames, with the slab as the web taking shear, the boundary chords as the flanges taking tension and compression, and collectors dragging the shear into walls that do not run the full depth, then split the story shear to the vertical elements by tributary area for a flexible diaphragm or by relative stiffness for a rigid one, a dependable Structural Engineering and Construction topic on the CELE.

15 min read · Super Ea