Last updated February 11, 2019 by Trimble Solutions UK

Effect of diaphragm stiffness RELATED TO

Question:
What is the appropriate stiffness for a semi rigid diaphragm?
Answer: IS RELATED
Semi-rigid diaphragms have an additional option which allows us to
determine how stiff we wish the diaphragm to be during the analysis. For
this example, the stiffness of the diaphragm has been set at 1000th of
initial stiffness. The stiffness of the diaphragm that is used should be
determined by the engineer but here we will consider a number of
SOFTWARE
options to see what effect this will have.
VERSION
Example
Once a slab has had its properties set to Semi-rigid, you can adjust the Not
version-
Divide stiffness by property to adjust its stiffness. specific

ENVIRONMENT

MATERIAL

Concrete
Steel
Timber/Wood

The diaphragm stiffness divisor has been set as 1. Looking at the force
in the beams, we can see that the results for this set-up are more similar
to the rigid diaphragm option. Whilst there is an axial load in the
connecting beam, this is not the significant force we would be expecting
to see and would be unlikely to result in a resizing of the connecting
beam.

If we increase the divisor to 500, we will see a significant increase in the

axial load being taken by the connecting members. If we consider the
results for the divisor of 1000, the results for a divisor of 500 are quite
similar.
The effect of changing the stiffness of the diaphragm would appear to be
non-linear. Increasing the divisor further will not have a significant
impact on the axial forces shown in the beam. We can see this if we set
the divisor at 10,000. Ultimately, the stiffness of the diaphragm would be
the judgement of the engineer and should be set up to give results that
are realistic for the system being used.
See also
Designing beams in braced bays for axial load
Tags: SEMI RIGID DIAPHRAGM STIFFNESS DIVIDE STIFFNESS BY

DIAPHRAGM