I just went through this a few months ago. Please…my advice, negate all lateral force, “flat earth” it; deny it exists, and don’t design these bad boys.
OR,
1. Be sure to design a connection embedment detail that is a “thing” that can be delivered to the site and manhandled by the masons while they are building the wall. If the masons leave with a few A706 bars sticking out of the end, you are in for trouble. Inevitably you will have alignment issues because of space limitations. The masons need to be the guys responsible for the connection integrity, not the steel guys coming in behind them. I need to be able to mock the thing up in place and align it while the wall is going up and ascertain if I have access to weld, how the drag strut will seat, etc..
2. Okay, now, my biggest, and I mean BIGGEST complaint about engineering drawings. In a connection like this and in all areas where there’s a lot of engineering going on, you folks need to draw the rebar and the block and the steel to actual size. That includes masonry walls with accurate cells dims and #8 bars shown 1” wide, to scale, not just a “medium” or “wide” width line from the line style pull-down menu. You need to know what you are dealing with, or more succinctly, what my masons are dealing with. Clearances in masonry are a lot harder to achieve than the line on the drawing might indicate unless that line is drawn as wide as the bar you want to use. The radius of a bent bar needs to be shown in its real diameter. Stuff like that matters in the field. (Okay, off the soapbox).
From: David Topete [mailto:dtopete@gfdseng.com]
Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2007 11:29 AM
To:
Subject: RE: Steel drag strut to masonry connection
Just be careful to check the connection for the combined effects of gravity and seismic. Working with an 8” masonry wall can be unbelievably maddening.
David A. Topete, SE
From: Jeff Hedman [mailto:jeff_h@lrpope.com]
Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2007 11:24 AM
To:
Subject: RE: Steel drag strut to masonry connection
David,
Thanks for the input. It sounds like I am barking up the right tree.
Jeff Hedman , E.I.T.
L.R. Pope Engineers & Surveyors, Inc.
1240 East 100 South Suite # 15B
Office: 435-628-1676
Fax: 435-628-1788