Seismic design of low-rise steel buildings with flexible steel roof deck diaphragms - a Canadian perspective

Single-storey steel buildings in Canada are generally designed with a steel roof deck diaphragm to resist and transfer lateral loads to the vertical bracing system. Current Canadian seismic design provisions for these buildings are reviewed here with a focus on the design of the roof diaphragms. An equivalent static analysis method is generally used for these structures and comprehensive capacity design principles are applied to achieve a proper strength hierarchy in order to develop the intended yielding mechanism along the lateral load path. The method is illustrated with the help of a numerical example. The influence of roof diaphragm in-plane flexibility on the dynamic seismic response is discussed.