Rigid diaphragms with thermal breaks

[mbstruct]

A podium building (4 wood over 2 concrete) that I am assisting in designing requires a thermal break roughly through the center of the structure due to the size of building. For lateral design, if there is a thermal break I would typically design each portion of the building as a separate structure since the diaphragms are not continuous. When I try to apply that method to this structure however, I am running into an issue at the concrete levels due to lack of lateral elements (concrete shear walls) in one of the structures. Is there a way in which I could detail the thermal break to justify the diaphragms being continuous/rigid throughout? My initial thinking was providing dowels from one slab to the other with PVC inserts so that the slab can still expand/contract perpendicular to the joint but have shear resistance parallel to the joint. My gut is telling me that it isn't quite as simple as that though. Any help would be appreciated!

 

[jayrod12]

A thermal break? or a fire separation?

If a fire separation, I don't believe that would be necessary in the concrete portion structurally. However that may require some code gymnastics from the architect to justify it.

Why can't you sweet talk the architect into a couple of additional shear walls? Or how about some rigid frames? It is reinforced concrete after all, beg for a couple of reasonably sized beams between columns and detail them appropriately to act like moment frames.