I have to take issue with the last statement. Frost heaving occurs as a result of ice formation around small particles of soil causing an expansion in the mass. This can occur in any location provided the soil or substrate below does not readily accomodate this expansion due to large void...
For horizontal loads imposed on the diaphragm, I suggest that you use the Steel Deck Institute's Diaphragm Design Manual. You will find differing strengths for deck gauge, span length, end fastening and side lap fastening that should correspond to the demand on the diaphragm and need to be...
pylco:
Perhaps your concern does not arise solely from a metallurgical issue. There is another source of concern on my behalf that I would look at and it is "why are the welds unzipping."
The use of double tee flange connectors is required to develop a diaphragm in an untopped (or...
The best resource is the American Plywood Associations. Here is a link for the publications: http://www.apawood.org/level_c.cfm?content=pub_ply_libmain
Here is a link for the plywood design guide (probably what you need):
http://www.apawood.org/pdfs/managed/Y510-T.pdf
The last time that I violated an industry requirement I was burned by it. The Ceramic Tile Institute specifies a maximum center to center joist spacing of 16" for support of the subfloor for adhered tile. Since the job was a condo, we used floor trusses at 24" on center. While the...
A more direct method to model piles for the effects of lateral load and include soil structure interaction is to use a program called LPile, used by just about every Geotech that I know. This program utilizes input soil parameters, boundary conditions of the pile (fixed or free at the head of...
AISC has a lot of information on the banging bolt phenomenon. This may or may not be germaine to your case since it may be temperature and not load dependent and the banging bolts can only occur once per connection after the slip into bearing. An interesting way to check this phenomenon is to...
