ABSTRACT Under seismic loading reinforced concrete structural slabs act as a diaphragm to transfer inertial forces to lateral load

resisting systems. Chord forces are developed along the edges of diaphragm due to their in-plane rigidity. For buildings with large aspect ratios and irregular diaphragm such as curved diaphragm chord forces need to be considered in their design. There is no provision in Indian seismic code to account for these chord forces. The study was carried out to analyse the chord forces in a mid-rise reinforced concrete building with curved floor diaphragms. A finite element model was developed for the building, modelling the slabs using membrane elements. Chord forces at a storey level were computed from in-plane forces in slabs and axial forces in edge beams. A parametric study was conducted to study the effect of curvature of diaphragm and arrangement of frames on chord forces.