Design of CMU Bond Beam for One-Story Building

[oengineer]

What is the span length to be used to design a Bond Beam for a one-story building? Would it be the same span length as the largest opening for the any required lintel beams?

Comments/suggestions are appreciated.

 

[gte447f]

I don't understand your question, so ignore my response if you want. I think you are conflating bond beams and lintel beams. They are not the necessarily the same thing, although a bond beam can also serve as a lintel beam. A bond beam usually just refers to a course of CMU that is continuous horizontally and is grouted solid and reinforced, but does not necessarily span over an opening. Therefore, there is no span per se. There is usually a continuous bond beam at the bottom and top of a CMU wall and there may be additional horizontal bond beams uniformly spaced (vertically) depending on the seismic design category or the engineer's preference for temperature and shrinkage reinforcing. A lintel beam spans over an opening like a door or window, and the design span is obviously the width of the opening. If a bond beam occurs at the elevation above an opening, then it can also serve as the lintel, and needs to be designed appropriately (at least locally over the span of the opening).

 

[phamENG]

Where were you last week? thread507-521068