Equivalent Beam Model for Flat-Plate Building

무량판 건물의 등가 보 모델

Flat-plate buildings are commonly modeled as two-dimensional frames to calculate lateral drift, unbalanced moments, and shear at slab-column connections. For gravity loads. the slab-column frames are analyzed using equivalent column approach, while equivalent beam approach is typical for lateral loads. The equivalent beam approach is convenient for computer analysis, but no rational procedure exists for determining the effective width of foor slabs. At present, the determination of the equivalent slab width and its stiffness is a matter of engineering judgement. To account for cracking, overly conservative assumptions are made regarding the stiffness of the slab. A rational approach is therefore needed to realistically estimate the equivalent slab width and its stiffness for unbalanced moment and lateral drift calculations. Based on the test results of 8 interior slab-column connections, an equivalent beam model is proposed in which columns are modeled conventionally as a function of column and slab aspect ratios and the magnitude of the gravity load. the proposed approach is verified with selected experimental results and is founded to be practical and convenient for analyzing flat-plate buildings subjected to gravity and lateral loading.