Bradley Crumb
Bradley Crumb, Masonry Design Engineer, Canada Masonry Design Centre, 360 Superior Blvd., Mississauga, ON, Canada, BCrumb@canadamasonrycentre.com
ABSTRACT
Masonry Analysis Structural Systems (MASS™) is a design software package which designs masonry beams, out of plane walls, and shear walls in accordance with current CSA standards. The objective from the inception of the software development process has been to provide structural engineers an effective and transparent design tool which still leaves the responsibility of engineering judgement to the user. The engineer needs only enter general assemblage geometry and apply unfactored loads and MASS™ will calculate critical load combinations for bending moment, deflection, and shear. The software then iterates through hundreds of possible assemblage cross-sections, based on the inputs of the user in an attempt to satisfy ultimate and serviceability requirements. Additional effort has been made toward minimizing the cost of construction for the designed assemblage by incrementally increasing unit size, strength, reinforcement spacing, and reinforcement size. The recent release of MASS™ Version 3.0 will transition all existing MASS™ designs in their current scope into compliance with the new CSA S304-14 standard. The upcoming Version 3.1 release will introduce the Chapter 16 seismic considerations to shear wall design as well as the addition of a multi-storey shear wall module.
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