Diaphragm Basics - The Analysis of Irregular Shaped Structures - page 51

F i g u r e 2.22 Collector force diagrams at grid line 2.
is equal to the area of the net shear diagram. The visual shear transfer method is shown
at the lower right of the figure. Diekmann 6 and Kula 9 both demonstrated in their pre-
sentations and examples that a visual representation of how shears are transferred from
the sheathing elements into boundary members and collectors is critical to solving and
understanding complex diaphragms. Briefly, the basic shear diagram (plf or klf) is
developed for the two-span diaphragm. The diaphragms are assumed to act as two
simple spans. The left half of each diaphragm is positive shear, and the right half of each
diaphragm is negative shear. Sheathing elements are placed at the positive and neg-
ative shear locations of the diagram, showing the direction of the shears acting on