Abstract
Flat-plate buildings are commonly modeled as two-dimensional frames to calculate unbalanced moments, lateral drift and shear at slab-column connections. The slab-column frames under lateral loads are analyzed using effective beam width models, which is convenient for computer analysis. In this case, the accuracy of this approach depends on the exact values of effective beam width to account for the actual behavior of slab-column connections. In this parametric study, effective beam width coefficients for wide range of the variations are calculated on the several types of slab-column connections, and the results are compared with those of other researches. Also the formulas for effective beam width coefficients are proposed and verified by finite element analysis. The proposed formulas are founded to be more suitable than others for analyzing flat-plate buildings subjected to lateral loading.