Does the half-and-half load split understate the demand on a garage-front wall?
research/house-diaphragm
Does the half-and-half load split understate the demand on a garage-front wall? In a toy stiffness model a rigid roof diaphragm gives the garage line less than half, so the flexible split governs; stylised, torsion not modelled.
What it found
Re-asks house-structure experiment G with a rigid roof diaphragm: a four-spring sway-and-twist model splits the 115 mph gable load by wall stiffness. In a toy stiffness model the garage line carries less than half (at a centred 22 ft door, demand over capacity at 6 in nailing falls from 1.05 to 0.18–0.63) and the partner wall stays under 0.35, so the flexible split is the governing case. Stylised: the stiffness is an assumption, and torsion, collectors and seismic are not modelled.
A figure from its own output
Paper, code and results
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Produced with AI assistance (Claude). Results are from the code in this repository and are simulated or stylised unless the abstract says otherwise; nothing here implies affiliation with or endorsement by any lab, researcher or company cited. MIT licensed.