The floor is a very significant structural element because its operations have a decisive influence on the stability of the structure. It acts as a horizontal diaphragm which ensures the transmission and the distribution of horizontal loads between the vertical elements. This function depends on their behavior and their rigidity to the horizontal forces.
In this study, the deformability of the floor in plane is examined, under the effect of the horizontal seismic actions. The requests selected have the aim to bring the knowledge of the dynamic behavior of the floor and to know the influence of its deformability in plane on the distribution of the horizontal seismic loads to the vertical elements. The study of the deformability of the floor is led in order to identify the dominant parameters of their dynamic behavior. Therefore, the effects of some parameters influencing the dynamic behavior of the floor as size of openings and its position in the floor, number of stories, wall’s position and materials constituting the floor are studied initially.
To aim at the extension to the multiple constructive parameters with the assistance of the software based on the finite element method, the dynamic analyses of the diaphragms are obtained by means of the numeric simulation and the results obtained for rigid and flexible diaphragm assumption are compared.