Shear Flexibility and Strength of Corrugated Decks

A brief review is made of the mainly experimental work which has been carried out on shear diaphragms. To make full use of the shear properties of steel decks, it is desirable to be able to predict the behavior by calculation, and not rely entirely on full scale testing. A list is given of the factors which affect the shear behavior of practical panels of decking, and mathematical expressions are given or derived for each. It is shown that the total shear flexibility of a panel can be obtained by adding the separate effects, and that the shear strength of a panel can be calculated assuming that failure occurs because of tearing at the sheet fasteners. Experimental data on the slip characteristics of sheet fasteners and on the twisting characteristics of a range of purlin-rafter connections is given. The theoretical shear flexibility and strength of an experimental panel of sheeting is calculated and shown to be in close agreement with the measured values obtained from tests.