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Number of sill bolts

Henry94606

Student
May 24, 2021
13
On the architecture license exam, lateral part, question: on a 13 ft long wall that has 606#/ft unit shear, how many sill bolts of 727# capacity to be placed and at what spacing.
My answer is (606*13/727)=11 bolts
Spacing = (13*12)/11+1=13" o.c.
Is it odd that the spacing being that close ? My experience on the field normally saw them at least 5ft a part. Or perhaps my calculation was wrong ?
 
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It's rare that you would have that much shear in a framed wall and the bolt capacity seems low for this scenario.
IRC is 6 ft, O.C. for most situations.
 
FYI, a 1/2"Ø sill plate bolt with a SYP sill has an ASD in-plane shear capacity of about 1050 lbs for wind loading.
 
Thank you.
The test is in multiple choice. I guess the correct answer are at odd in order to throw off people from guessing.
Can you point direction to where i can get that info about sill bolts in plane capacity ? My Google points t unreliable sources
 
Thank you.
The test is in multiple choice. I guess the correct answer are at odd in order to throw off people from guessing.
Can you point direction to where i can get that info about sill bolts in plane capacity ? My Google points t unreliable sources

AISC Steel Construction Manual is the source for bolt capacities (tension, shear, etc.). The IRC tabulates sill fastener strengths. I would expect it to be in Chapter 6 (wall construction).
 
AISC Steel Construction Manual is the source for bolt capacities (tension, shear, etc.). The IRC tabulates sill fastener strengths. I would expect it to be in Chapter 6 (wall construction).
AFPA National Design specification (NDS) would likely be a better source for sill plate capacities. AISC is great for bolt strengths, but not as applicable to sill plate connections where the steel is rarely the limiting factor.

Another source - less for testing problems but for real-world ones- is post-installed anchor companies/literature (screw anchors, expansion anchors, etc). These are often used for sill plate anchors and the manufacturers generally have some good data published.
 

Terrible GUI but gets the job done.
I prefer to use my own spreadsheet
It’s a good calculator but has bugs. It gets certain applications wrong. I’ve emailed AWC about it.

I ultimately ended up writing my own Mathcad subroutine using the AWC Technical Note 12.

I keep meaning to post it for others to test and provide feedback. One of these days…
 

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