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Step 6: Summarize the Results

Finally, the results are summarized. Direct summarizing of SSR designs is not possible for a number of reasons (for example, two independent designs might have rails of different lengths, and therefore different depths which would dictate a different stud spacing). Therefore, if more than one design rule specifies punching shear design, the force envelopes from each design rule are combined into a single force envelope, then a summary design is carried out for this combined force envelope as outlined above.

For each resulting critical section the calculated stress is divided by the code allowable stress to determine an unreinforced stress ratio (USR). If the column contains SSR reinforcement, RAM Concept also reports a reinforced strength ratio (RSR), which is the punching demand over the strengthened capacity. If one or more of the potentially critical sections does not fit the standard conditions, then the column is tagged with a Nonstandard Section label in which case the engineer should review the applicability of the code design equations to the critical section labeled nonstandard.