Book Description

Residential wood floor systems have long been designed by considering the joists to be simple beams which act independently in supporting the imposed loads. However, interaction between the joists and sheathing material increases the stiffness above that of the joists alone. The interaction is not complete, however, due to the nonrigid behavior of the mechanical or adhesive fasteners which attach the sheathing to the joists. Gaps in the sheathing disrupt its continuity and further complicate the analysis. By use of methods for computing the stiffness of composite beams and for predicting the load-slip characteristics of individual mechanical fasteners, complex computational procedures were reworked and combined into an easy-to-use format. The problem of open gaps in the sheathing was handled by a simple modification of the basic method. This procedure gave excellent correlation between computed and experimental values obtained at FPL and elsewhere. With known material properties and the procedures presented, it is possible for designers to easily and accurately predict floor stiffness properties. (Author).