Investigation into diaphragm flexibility using shear wall

Abstract

The diaphragm stiffness has a significant influence on the structural responses. Typically engineers assume those diaphragm are rigid. This assumption decreases the degree of freedom and provides easier analysis. But diaphragm damages in past earthquakes, due to its flexibility, have attracted researchers toward the diaphragm behaviour. In order to investigate this behaviour, in this study single storey RC structure was considered (four frame models using ETABS2000 and LUSAS) to calculate optimum ratio between diaphragm deflection and storey displacement. The diaphragm ratio with lower 0.5 should be considered as rigid.