Simplify Complex Loads: How LAVA Handles Unstacked Lateral Walls
In structural design, lateral wall placement and alignment can make or break the building design. When lateral walls aren’t perfectly stacked in a building, the transfer of lateral forces can create design challenges—and time-consuming headaches. But with LAVA, those challenges become a thing of the past.
Automatic Load Transfer Made Simple
LAVA takes the complexity out of discontinuous lateral wall design by automatically detecting unstacked conditions and redistributing lateral forces to the levels below. No manual guesswork, no tedious calculations—just seamless load transfer built into the software.
Here’s how it works:
Stacked Walls: LAVA identifies the supporting element directly below the lateral wall—whether it’s a Shear Line or Shear Wall—to transfer loads with precision.
Discontinuous Walls: The Diaphragm steps in as a load distributor.
Flexible: The distribution of the load through the diaphragm is proportional to the distance to the shear line/shear wall.
Rigid: The loads go into the diaphragm and the forces are distributed based on the stiffness of the walls attached below.
Why Does This Matter?
Spreadsheets and other software rely on labor-intensive calculations and adjustments to accommodate unstacked walls and keeping track of the lateral loads with the proper load factors. LAVA’s automation saves hours of manual work, reduces errors, and ensures your design meets code requirements with unmatched speed and accuracy.
Engineered for Real-Life Challenges
Engineers face constant design iterations and evolving project requirements. LAVA is built to handle these complexities, so you can focus on what matters—delivering safe, efficient, and cost-effective designs.
With LAVA, you’re not just solving for lateral loads; you’re streamlining your workflow and ensuring every design is ready to handle the real-world forces it will face.
Ready to revolutionize your structural engineering process?
Discover how LAVA can elevate your designs today. Click here for a step-by-step process showing how you can use LAVA to build this type of model and an example model file to see it for yourself.