August 10, 2009

Eccentric Loading on Semirigid Diaphragms

Bulent N. Alemdar, Ph.D., P.E.
Several building codes require eccentric loading on diaphragms to account for accidental torsion effects.
Referring to models with rigid diaphragms, such eccentric loading is accomplished by simply shifting
loads to new positions that accounts for eccentric distances. For instance, concentrated story loads for
seismic load cases are first calculated at diaphragms mass center and then they are applied at their
shifted locations. For wind load cases, a similar procedure is followed: story wind loads are calculated
based on building profiles (one for X and one for Y-direction) and then they are lumped and applied at
their shifted locations.
On the other hand, for models with semirigid diaphragms, the above procedure is not applicable since
such diaphragms are meshed and loads on these diaphragms are not concentrated at a certain locations
but rather they are distributed over the diaphragm for seismic\dynamic load cases and they are applied
along building edges for wind load cases.
In the following sections, several methods are explored and proposed in order to address these issues
for semirigid diaphragms.

Eccentric Loads for Seismic and Response Spectra Load Cases

After a semirigid diaphragm is meshed, the program processes all mass loads over the diaphragm. At the
end of this process, all the mass are converted into point (nodal) mass loads and they are directly
applied at mesh nodes. In order to explain the current method utilized for seismic and response spectra
load cases, an example is provided in this section (i.e., a diaphragm loaded in (+) Y direction with (+)
eccentricity). The reference is also referred to Figure 1 . The following steps are pursued for this
purpose:
The program calculates mass center for the diaphragm. This is shown in Figure 1Error!
Reference source not found.a. Mass center line is determined (i.e., a line passing through the
mass center and parallel to global Y-axis)
For the load case in Y-direction, the diaphragm is divided into two zones: one zone at the left
side and one zone of right side of the mass center line (Figure 1 b). For each zone, mass centers
are calculated according to the following equations:

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(a)
(cm,m)

(b)
(cm1,m1)

(cm2,m2)

(c)
(cme,m)

Figure 1

Where
and
are the mass center coordinates for the zone 1 and 2, respectively (see
Figure 1b). Note that the index is reserved for nodes located inside Zone 1, and the index
is reserved for nodes in Zone 2.
If it is a rigid diaphragm, calculated seismic story loads are concentrated at a single point
,
(i.e.,
for (+) eccentricity in Y-direction). In other words, the mass
center is shifted to its new location,
to account for eccentric loading. Once the
concentrated load is applied at this location, additional moment (i.e., accidental torsion) is
created at .
For a semirigid diaphragm, two new terms are introduced,
from solving the following two equations:

and

, and they are obtained

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Total mass of the diaphragm
Then,

The terms and can be interpreted as the amount of lumped masses at each zone so that
the final system has a combined mass center at
.

Then, the program calculates effective mass coefficients for each zone:

Finally, each point mass (or calculated seismic point load at each node) in zones 1 and 2 are
multiplied with and , respectively. Once, each point mass (or point seismic load) is
modified as explained above, the analysis is carried out with this modified configuration. Note
that it is for seismic load cases when each seismic point loads are modified with and
.
Similarly, it is response spectra load cases when each point mass is modified with and .
The following is summarized based on the above procedure:

And also note that diaphragm mass is always conserved:

Figure 2a shows another example of eccentrically loaded diaphragm (i.e., Y+E). Note that the arrows of
the right side of the diagram are relatively longer than those on left side, which indicates that these
seismic point loads are amplified with
whereas those on left side are reduced with . In addition,
the deflected shape given in Figure 2b indicates presence of eccentric loading.
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August 10, 2009

(a)

(b)
Figure 2

Seismic Loads on Semirigid Diaphragms: Example 1

In this example, a single story is subjected to eccentric seismic loads along Y-direction. Seismic loads are
calculated according to ASCE 7-05 \ IBC2006. The model is given in the following figure

Figure 3
If the diaphragm is rigid, the following seismic loads are calculated for positive eccentricity in Ydirection:

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Figure 4
And computed story seismic load is graphically portrayed in Figure 5. Positive eccentricity value is
calculated as 1.25 ft according to ASCE 7-05\IBC2006. In Figure 5Figure , both load application point and
mass center are shown. The concentrated seismic load is calculated as 1.66 kips.

Figure 5
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And the torsional moment (accidental torsion) according to ASCE 7-05\IBC2006 is

If the diaphragm is semirigid but no eccentric loading is defined, calculated seismic point loads are as
follows:

Figure 6
And they are further graphically portrayed in Figure 7. Note that the model is symmetrically loaded in
Figure 7.

Figure 7
If the diaphragm is defined as semirigid, then computed seismic loads for an eccentric loading in +Ydirection are given in Figure 8 and they are also shown in Figure 9 . Note that there is no symmetric
loading for this case.

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Figure 8

Figure 9
The above procedure is further explained below. First of all, calculated point masses are needed and
they can be obtained from Criteria, Mass and Exposure report:

Figure 10
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Referring to Figure ,

and

are calculated as follows:

Figure 11
The location of shifted mass center is

And the effective mass coefficients,

. Hence,

and

, are found as follows:

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Finally, seismic point loads given in Figure 6Figure are modified with these coefficients:
Node
1
2
3
4
9
10
11
12
13

Fy
(No eccentric loading case, kips)
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.10
0.42
0.21
0.21
0.21
0.21

Fy
(Eccentric loading case, kips)
= 0.10 * 0.793 = 0.079
= 0.10 * 0.793 = 0.079
= 0.10 * 1.207 = 0.121
= 0.10 * 1.207 = 0.121
0.42
= 0.21 * 1.207 = 0.253
0.21
0.21
= 0.21 * 0.793 = 0.166

Note that modified point loads, given in the last column of the above table, match with values given in
Figure 8 or the values shown in Figure 9. Also, note that force and moment equilibrium is also fulfilled:
Total force applied to the diaphragm:

and torsional moment (accidental torsion) about mass center (

):

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Wind Loads on Semirigid Diaphragms

Wind pressures on semirigid diaphragms are calculated for each Windward and Leeward surfaces of the
building. Then, these pressures are converted to uniform line loads and applied on the model at story
levels (Figure 12).

Windward loads
Leeward loads

Figure 12
Figure 13a shows a uniform load applied at Windward side of the building. If the diaphragm type is rigid,
then the program converts the uniform load into a concentrated load and applies it at mid-width
location of stories (Figure 13b). If there is any eccentricity defined, the concentrated load is shifted to its
location (indicated in the figure with b), or associated moment (w * a * b) is applied at the mid-width
location (Figure 13c).
a/2
w
a/2

(a)

wa

wab

b
wa

(b)

(c)

Figure 13
In order to account for eccentric loading on semirigid diaphragms, it is proposed that uniform wind line
loads are represented with trapezoidal load patterns (see Figure 14) and the following equations are
solved to define the new load pattern:

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Force Equilibrium:

Moment Equilibrium:

w2
a/2

a/2
w1

Figure 14
And solving the above two equations, one can find

It should be noted that the trapezoidal load profile generates the same amount of total load as of the
uniform load, plus it also generates the same moment (w*a*b). This is graphically portrayed in Figure
15.

w2
wab
w

w1
Figure 3

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Figure 15 shows an example for eccentric wind loads on a semirigid diaphragm. Note that if there is no
eccentricity defined (Figure 15Error! Reference source not found.a), the loading profile is linear.
Otherwise, it is converted to a trapezoidal profile (Figure 15b) to reflect effect of eccentric loads.

(a)

(b)

Figure 15
Wind Loads on Semirigid Diaphragms: Example 1
In this example, a single story is subjected to eccentric wind loads along X-direction. Wind pressures and
loads are calculated according to ASCE 7-05 \ IBC2006. The model is given in the following figure

Figure 16
If the diaphragm is rigid, the following wind pressures and loads are calculated for wind loads with
positive eccentricity in X-direction (i.e., Case 2 in Figure 6-9 of ASCE 7-05):

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Figure 17
And computed story wind load is graphically portrayed as follows:

Figure 18
Positive eccentricity value is calculated as 2.85 ft according to ASCE 7-05\IBC2006. In the above figure,
both load application point and mass center are shown. The wind load of 1.77 kips, in fact, is nothing but
simply total uniform wind load on the model. For instance, total wind pressure (windward + leeward
pressures) is 16.549 psf, as given in the report (Figure 19).
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Figure 19

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Hence,

And the torsional moment (accidental torsion) according to ASCE 7-05\IBC2006 is

If the diaphragm is defined as semirigid, then computed wind pressures and loads are given in the
following report. Note that both Windward and Leeward wind pressures are separately shown in the
report. Once these wind pressures are computed, they are converted to trapezoidal loading patterns
while considering eccentric loading. Finally, they are represented as point loads which are also given in
the report.
The above procedure is further explained here. First of all, Windward and Leeward pressures are
converted to uniform line loads:

Then, trapezoidal loading pattern is defined as follows: For windward side loads:

For leeward side loads:

Or,

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August 10, 2009

0.152532 k / ft

0.083277 k / ft

0.008028 k / ft

0.004383 k / ft

Figure 20
Note that the load distribution given in the above figure produces the same total load and torsional
moment:

And moment about mass center is

Finally, the program converts these trapezoidal loads into point loads (Figure 21).

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August 10, 2009

0.152532 k / ft

0.083277 k / ft

0.08028 k / ft

0.008028 k / ft

0.04383 k / ft

0.46 k

0.38 k

0.004383 k / ft

(a)
0.25 k

0.20 k

0.21 k

0.10 k

0.06 k

0.11 k

(b)
0.46 k
0.25 k
0.57 k
0.31 k
0.11 k
0.06 k

(c)
Figure 21
The point loads given in Figure 21c are also shown in Figure 22.

Figure 22

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