Joistg:
Me thinks BA meant to say that under symmetrical loading the middle panel sees small shears across the panel length, but max. beam moment. And, that moment is taken by the top and bottom chords in compression and tension respectively, with the couple lever arm being the distance btwn. the centroids of the two chords. With unsymmetrical loading on the joist you will still have a significant bending moment near the center panel, but now you will have sizable shear forces acting on the chords as well, and they induce an additional moment in the chords, over and above the couple axial loads. Then there will also be some more complex secondary forces and moments due to the adjacent diags. and the joints in general. When BA and I were still pushing slide rules we designed joints for min. eccentricity and tended to minimize the secondary affects, and then basically pretended they went away. And, it actually worked; over the years I ended up with buckets full of secondary stresses, never did find a market for them.
Draw the moment and shear diagrams for your various loading conditions on that simple beam, both symmetrical and unsymmetrical. Cut the joist, a vert. cut through the t&b chords, at various locations in that center panel and draw your FBD showing the chord axial load for the beam bending moment, and the shears distributed to the two chords as BA suggested and consider the moments these shears induce in the chords, plus the floor loading moment in the top chord. Design accordingly, being a little conservative and call it a day.
Tomorrow, buy a $5000 computer program, input all the variables that we really can’t pin down very well anyway, and run that thing for all the different load conditions, to at least 8 significant decimal places. Impress your boss with the .5% savings in steel if you could only get an angle that size, and assuming all of your guesses on the variables are correct.