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[merrick group <merrickgroup(--nospam--at)compuserve.com>]

I have an older building that has masonry 
steel ratios of .0008, .0009 and a total of 
.0017. I need .0007 min and a total of .002. 

How can I get this total ratio up? 

Can I allow the total number to be rounded 
up to 0.002? The code suggests a significant 
figure of one. I jokingly consider using the 
CMD97 program that allows the ratio. 

Shear capacities are from 1.5 times to 4 times 
that needed. Recall that the seismic-force-
amplification-factor is 3.8. It would seem that 
adding extra reinforcement is unreasonable 
for capacity to demand ratio that is more than 
3.8. 

Without any good recommendations, I am 
adding some steel pilasters that can carry the 
tributary lateral loads out of the wall?s plane. 
I will consider the pilaster as equivalent to a 
vertical bar of steel, at that location, to 
increase the effective steel ratio. The walls 
already have masonry pilasters every 14 feet.

Less than minimum steel has been considered 
as having an equivalent ductility of masonry 
with no steel. How silly. I am request that the 
Seismic-rulers-of-the-code to consider a 
reduced minimum steel ratio that is 
dependent on an application of an adjustable 
seismic-force-amplification-factor. 

David Merrick, SE
Merrickgroup(--nospam--at)compuserve.com