Seismic Design of Floor Diaphragms

This chapter surveys the seismic behavior and design of floor and roof diaphragms. Following someintroductory remarks, a classification of diaphragm behavior is presented in Section 8.2, and a discussion on the determination of diaphragm rigidity in Section 8.3. Potential diaphragm problems are explained in Section 8.4 where examples are provided to clarify the subject. Provisions of major United States building codes for seismic design of diaphragms are summarized in Section 8.5. Finally, in Section 8.6, the current standard procedures for design of diaphragms are presented via their application in a number of realistic design examples