Out of plane block walls (cantilever)

[Josh12]

Hi All,

I know it’s not preferred, but has anyone used core filled reinforced block walls for out of plane lateral loads? I’m looking at a relatively small structure that has a 3m high cantilever wall (supported at base). The wall has sufficient robustness for a 0.5kPa load. The wall also has about 6.5kNm/m bending capacity, so could theoretically support about 2kN/m line load laterally along the top. Am I missing anything?

Thanks

 

[DaveAtkins]

Are you proposing the use of a cantilever wall to resist diaphragm loads via out of plane bending? It should be OK if you follow the Code and the calcs work out.

DaveAtkins

 

[Josh12]

The overall lateral wall system has enough ULS capacity for the required total lateral wind force. The distribution of lateral force resisting walls is not ideal though (large space between). I have 1 of floor beam that connects to the top of the core filled reinforced block wall. If axial load goes into that beam from diaphragm forces, I was querying if anyone has used blockwall for out of plane capacity. As stated above, the wall can take 2kN/m line load along the top (by bending capacity). So if I distribute this across a 3m length (conservative 30deg angle), I assume the wall could take a 6kN point load laterally. The local connection easily works for 6kN.

 

[DaveAtkins]

I would assume the wall does not resist lateral loads, since its out of plane stiffness will be much less than the in plane stiffness of your other lateral load resisting elements.

DaveAtkins

 

[TORCHMAN]

I was querying if anyone has used blockwall for out of plane capacity.

The NCMA has a guide on it. Let me know how it goes!