RC Structural slabs, in complex structural systems like Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) Structures, apart from providing resistance to the usual out of plane loads, plays a significant role in resisting effects of seismic forces due to their high in-plane rigidity. They act as effective diaphragm elements in distributing the horizontal seismic forces generated. Further, the diaphragm elements aid in tying the different vertical elements into a single integrated structural system to resist effects due to body forces, like temperature, shrinkage and creep etc. This paper deals with design of RC structural slabs in such structural systems under the action of both out of plane and in-plane diaphragm forces. A two-stage analysis and design approach, adopting sub-structuring technique, has been used for idealization, analysis and design of these diaphragm elements optimizing computational efforts and providing cost acceptable solutions while performing analysis and design of a large size structural system. The design issues are discussed with an illustrative example and the solution adopted for a Nuclear Power Plant structure under construction in India.
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