what is the difference between plate loads and floor loads on slab designing in staadpro. why peoples used plate loads on slabs?
Plate loads are used to apply pressure load on the plate elements, while floor load can be used to apply pressure load on the area without modeling the plate. When you need to consider the stiffness of the plate element, you can model the plate and assign the pressure with a plate load option. When you don't want to consider the plate stiffness, then you can apply the pressure loading with a floor load option.
Answer Verified By: Dilshan
Floor load applies the load (in force/area units) on an imaginary slab that gets transferred to its supporting beams following the "2-way" distribution method (in force/length unit).