Movement joints are designed to relieve or absorb anticipated movement between structural elements, which are generally caused by thermal expansion/contraction, settlement, load transfer, dead loads and at times even seismic activity.
Movement joints are dynamic, and will be subject to horizontal (expansion/contraction), vertical and shear movement. Therefore, before selecting the most appropriate movement jointing system, it is important that the movement criteria of the joint is known engineer to ensure that the proposed system accommodates all the predicted types of movement.
For more information about movement joints, contact the RIW Technical Department.