Assign Manual Reinforcement
The Assign Manual Reinforcement dialog allows the engineer to assign reinforcement to Wall Panels such that vertical bars are placed in one or more zones along the length of the Wall Panel, each of which can have different properties. Unlike a Bar Pattern, in which the reinforcing is placed uniformly along the entire Wall Panel according to the specified spacing, the Manual Reinforcing option allows the user to vary the bar size, spacing, and number of reinforcing layers along the length of the Wall Panel according to the zones specified in the dialog. In addition, each vertical zone created may be specified as a boundary, in which case any code-prescribed confinement calculations are performed for the respective vertical zone.
For the Wall Panel illustrated below, three vertical reinforcing zones have been created. The outer zones are reinforced with (3) curtains of #9 bars at 6" o.c. The interior zone is reinforced with (2) curtains of #6 bars at 12" o.c. In addition, the outer zones have been specified as boundaries and thus confinement ties have been designed for these zones.
After selecting Assign - Manual Reinforcement from the main menu, the user will be prompted to select a Wall Panel. After selecting a Wall Panel, the Manual Reinforcement dialog will appear with a single horizontal reinforcement zone and a single vertical reinforcement zone shown in the dialog. Each zone will extend the full height and length, respectively, of the Wall Panel. The bar size, bar spacing, and number of curtains may be edited for each zone. For vertical reinforcing, additional zones may be added using the Add button, or deleted using the Remove button. The start and end positions of the vertical reinforcing zones may be adjusted either by entering new start coordinates directly in the spreadsheet cells, or by moving the graphical representation of the zones using the cursor. Note that the cursor will snap to wall and opening edges for convenience.
Vertical reinforcing zones also have a boundary assignment associated with them. There are three options available:
A boundary assignment of Yes means that the program will design the vertical reinforcing zone as a boundary according to the provisions of the selected design code. Among the possible conditions that will be evaluated are reinforcing ratio (percentage), boundary extents, and confinement. In addition, the design of ties or links required to confine the vertical reinforcing in the zone per code will be performed. If the design code has no provisions regarding wall boundaries, this assignment will have no impact on the design.
A boundary assignment of No, but check means that all design checks listed above will be performed for the vertical reinforcing zone, but the design of confinement ties for the zone will not be performed. In addition, if the zone lies in a region where a boundary is found to be required by code, a design failure will be delivered to the user both in the Design Warnings page of the View/Update dialog and in the Section Cut design report. In addition the Section Cut will be colored red accordingly.
A boundary assignment of No, don't check means that no boundary-related checks will be performed for the vertical reinforcing zone. Further, no design failures will be generated if the zone lies in a region where a boundary is found to be required by code. Once a Wall Panel has been assigned Manual Reinforcement, subsequently issuing the Manual Reinforcement command on the Wall Panel will cause the existing reinforcing zones to be loaded when the dialog appears. Further revisions may then be made to the reinforcing zones in the Wall Panel. After making further revisions to the information, the changes will be transferred if OK is selected. At this point the design results in the Wall Panel Group to which the Wall Panel belongs will be cleared. If Cancel is selected, any revisions made will be ignored.
After a Wall Panel has been assigned Manual Reinforcement, the Wall Panel is frozen with that reinforcing information. In order to clear the Wall Panel of the Manual Reinforcement that has been assigned, the user must either assign a Bar Pattern from the Bar Pattern Template (using Assign -> Bar Pattern), or issue the Process -> Clear Reinforcing command.
When multiple vertical reinforcing zones occur in a Wall Panel, the bar placement where adjacent zones meet is such that the zone with the larger amount of reinforcing per unit length controls. Specifically, the zone with the larger amount of steel per length will have a bar placed at the exact start or end point of that zone.