Behavior of diaphragm which has expansion joint

Krsl · Feb 11, 2024

Hi all! I am trying to understand the load path of the structure which has a diaphragm divided into two half due to expansion joint. Please refer attached picture for reference. Can anyone tell me what will be the load path for part B and how part B will still be stable? The structure has metal deck which acts as a flexible diaphragm. Don't we need to have lateral force resisting system at the both sides of the expansion joint? Please let me know if there is any additional design considerations that I need to be aware of.

driftLimiter · Feb 12, 2024

Generally you want a lateral system on both sides of the expansion joint. (3) sided flexible diaphragm is possible, but you gotta do a lot of extra work to get the shear and deflection right. Depending on the scale of the building and aspect ratio of the three sided diaprhagm there may not be a good solution.

Tek-Tips is the largest IT community on the Internet today!

Members share and learn making Tek-Tips Forums the best source of peer-reviewed technical information on the Internet!

Behavior of diaphragm which has expansion joint

Krsl

Student

driftLimiter

Structural

Similar threads

Part and Inventory Search

Sponsor