Effects of One Way Slab Deck Orientation
Floor loads in the one way slab deck regions are distributed based on the orientation of the deck. Loads within a bay will be distributed in the direction of the slab to the several members surrounding the bay. For example, no surface load would be applied to a beam that is parallel to the slab span (except as a point load from a beam framing into it). In calculating the distribution of the loads, it is assumed that the slab-deck performs as a single simple span between beams within the bay; no continuity of the slab over multiple spans is considered.
Typically a one-way deck is not considered in the analysis in RAM Concrete other than to determine what nodes are to be slaved to what diaphragm. However, if there is a combination of one-way and two-way slabs on the same floor then the entire floor will be meshed. The loads that are applied to the one-way deck will be distributed in RAM Gravity and be applied as line and point loads on the supporting members in RAM Concrete Analysis. This is unlike in the two-way areas described below, where the load is actually applied to the floor slab mesh itself. As no load is applied to the one-way mesh and as the loads on the one-way deck are already distributed to supporting members the one-way deck itself is given nominal (small) out of plane bending properties.