Structural Design Section 1.2.

1
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OCTOBER 2016

The majority of residential buildings in the world are built of masonry -

although often to a low level of construction quality. For this reason,
photo coverage of earthquake damage from distant villages frequently
features piles of bricks or stones that were once homes. While these
structures bear little resemblance to our modern reinforced masonry
systems, they do illustrate the need for proper structural design.

The seismic experience with masonry in California has shown that

modern engineered masonry has generally provided a high level of
performance. While this is reassuring for our local region, their
experience with old unreinforced masonry structures highlights the need
for close attention to our own stock of similar buildings.

LIMIT STATES DESIGN

Modern masonry design is similar to limit states design methods for An updated CSA S304-14
standard has been issued by
other materials, particularly concrete. CSA S304-04 Design of Masonry CSA, is referenced in the 2015
Structures is referenced by the 2005 National Building Code and the NBCC and will become
effective when the new BC
2006 B.C. Building Code. Building Code is issued,
presumably in 2017.
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The following three factors in CSA S304.1 differentiate masonry design

from reinforced concrete design:

- f'm
f'm is the masonry compressive design strength. It is less than the
masonry unit strength due to the effects of mortar bedding and
interaction of the mortar and masonry unit. f'm is usually determined
from the unit strength, as shown below in Table 1.2.1-1. For some
projects, such as those utilizing large amounts of high strength units,
the alternative method of testing masonry assemblies (prisms) is
occasionally used.

- Φm Block Testing
The Φ m resistance (safety) factor for masonry was increased from 0.55
to 0.60 in the 2004 edition.

- Em
The elastic modulus for masonry may be taken as Em=850 f'm (not
greater than 20,000 MPa), or may be determined from testing. CSA
S304.1 also provides methods for determining effective moments of
inertia for deflection calculations

Value of f'm for concrete block masonry

Specified compressive strength
normal to the bed joint, f'm, for
concrete block masonry, MPa
Specified compressive Note that CSA S304.1 now
strength of unit, MPa Type S mortar clearly provides for the use of
(average net area) * the higher “Hollow” value for
f'm if the grout area is ignored.
Hollow Solid or
grouted
>40 22 17
30 17.5 13.5
20 13 10
15 9.8 7.5
10 6.5 5
*Linear interpolation is permitted.
Notes: - For grouted walls the area of grout may be ignored and the
“Hollow” f'm value used with the face-shell bedded area. This
will be advantageous for larger spacings of grouted cells.
- Alternatively, for partially grouted walls a weighted value
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between the “Hollow” and the “Solid or Grouted” may be used,

based on the percentage of grouted cores.
- Type N mortar is seldom, if ever, used in structural masonry.

REINFORCEMENT

Care should be taken to disperse the rebar throughout the wall, and to
avoid congestion in vertical cores. The most common rebar size in
reinforced masonry is 15M, followed by 20M. 25M’s are occasionally
used, but are difficult to handle and require long laps. Vertical bars are
typically placed as one layer in the centre of the wall. Horizontal rebar is
placed in bondbeam courses, often in pairs that act to centre the
vertical steel. Horizontal joint reinforcing is fabricated in ladders of two
3.8mm (9 ga) galvanized wires and embedded in horizontal mortar bed
joints at a spacing of 400 or 600mm.

Dowels

MINIMUM SEISMIC REINFORCEMENT

CSA S304.1 (Clause 10.15.2) specifies minimum seismic reinforcement

for loadbearing and non-loadbearing walls for a project with a specific
seismic hazard index [IEFaSa(0.2)]. For most cases, the required
reinforcement areas must be oriented a minimum of 1/3 in either
direction. The larger amount of reinforcement will usually be used
vertically.

Vertical steel spacing must not exceed 6(t+10) mm or 1200 mm,

whichever is less. The maximum spacing of horizontal reinforcement is:
- 400 mm where only joint reinforcement is used
- 1200 mm where only bond beams are used
- 2400 mm for bond beams, and 400 mm for joint reinforcement
where both are used

In many cases, it will be found that this minimum seismic steel will also
be adequate for flexural, shear or axial load resistance.
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Reinforced Block Structure

SHI* Area Required Typical Spec 200mm Wall

Loadbearing Total 0.002 Ag Vertical: 15M @ 800mm (0.00132)
SHI ≥ 0.35 2/3 = 0.00133 Horizontal: 2-15M @ 2400mm
1/3 = 0.00067 + Joint reinforcing @ 400mm (0.00117)
Non- Total 0.001 Vertical: 15M @ 1200mm (0.00088)
loadbearing 2/3 = 0.00067 Horizontal: 1-15M @ 2400mm
SHI ≥ 0.75 1/3 = 0.00033 + Joint reinforcing @ 400mm (0.00073)
* SHI = Seismic Hazard Index IEFaSa(0.2)

See reinforcement ratio table on page 5. See Guide Structural Notes in

Section 3.3 for typical reinforcement for other wall thicknesses.
In addition to flexural, shear and minimum seismic steel, vertical
reinforcing is required at each side of openings over 1200mm long, at
each side of control joints, and at corners, ends and intersections of
walls. CSA S304.1-04 (Clause 4.6.1) allows unreinforced masonry
2
The seismic provisions and
partitions if they are less than 200 kg/m in mass and 3 m in height., but ductility categories have been
only for seismic hazard indices < 0.75. substantially updated in the
new CSA S304-14 standard.
This standard has been
referenced in the 2015 NBCC
SEISMIC DESIGN FOR DUCTILE SHEAR WALLS and will become effective
when the new BC Building
The minimum seismic requirements described above for “Conventional” Code is issued, presumably in
2017. They will be reviewed in
reinforced masonry will be all that is required for the vast majority of this manual as that time
masonry buildings. However, the B.C. Building Code 2006 (Table approaches.
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4.1.8.9) and CSA S304.1-04 Clause 10.16 contain additional provisions

for a range of ductile shear wall categories beyond the conventional
seismic requirements They are based on the concept of ductility through
inelastic behavior in a “plastic hinge” zone at the base of a cantilever
shear wall. These detailing and design provisions ensure that the shear
capacity exceeds the flexural capacity that is providing the ductile
mechanism. They provide values of either 1.5 or 2.0 for R d, the “ductility
related force reduction factor,” used in determining design loads.
The shear wall categories and their maximum building heights for the
two higher seismic hazard indices from BCBC Table 4.1.8.9 are shown
below:

Reinforcement

Maximum Height
Rd 0.35 - 0.75 > 0.75
1. Conventional 1.5 30 m 15 m
2. Limited Ductility 1.5 40 m 30 m
3. Moderately Ductile 2.0 60 m 40 m
4. Moderately Duct. Squat 2.0 n/a n/a

For the cases beyond the Conventional ductility walls there are
additional requirements for grouting, and reinforcing spacing and
detailing. There are also limits on h/t, compressive strains, and shear
resistance. For typical masonry walls designed in the Squat category
with hw /lw<1, there is an h/(t+10) limit, and requirements for uniform
loading and reinforcement ratios.
An Rd of 2.0 for all materials is now required for post-disaster buildings.
This can be provided by structural masonry by meeting the
requirements of Clause 10.16. The requirements for typical squat
masonry walls such as those used for fire halls are contained in Clause
10.16.6.

Large differences in the ductility of framing systems in orthogonal Reinforcement

directions should be avoided.
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Wall Reinforcement Ratio 𝑃𝜕 = 𝐴𝑠 𝐼𝐴𝑔

Wire or Bar Spacing S Wall Thickness (mm)
Size (mm) b=140 b=190 b=240 b=290
2 – 9 ga. @ 1200 0.00013 0.00010 0.00008 0.00006
800 0.00020 0.00015 0.00012 0.00010
600 0.00027 0.00020 0.00015 0.00013
400 0.00040 0.00029 0.00023 0.00019
200 0.00080 0.00059 0.00046 0.00038
2 – 8 ga. @ 1200 0.00016 0.00012 0.00009 0.00008
800 0.00024 0.00018 0.00014 0.00011
600 0.00032 0.00023 0.00018 0.00015
400 0.00048 0.00035 0.00028 0.00023
200 0.00095 0.00070 0.00055 0.00046
#10 @ 1200 0.00060 0.00044 0.00035 0.00029
800 0.00089 0.00066 0.00052 0.00043
600 0.00119 0.00088 0.00069 0.00057
400 0.00179 0.00132 0.00104 0.00086
200 0.00357 0.00263 0.00208 0.00172
#15 @ 1200 0.00119 0.00088 0.00069 0.00057
800 0.00179 0.00132 0.00104 0.00086
600 0.00238 0.00175 0.00139 0.00115
400 0.00357 0.00263 0.00208 0.00172
200 0.00714 0.00526 0.00417 0.00345
#20 @ 1200 0.00179 0.00132 0.00104 0.00086
800 0.00268 0.00197 0.00156 0.00129
600 0.00357 0.00263 0.00208 0.00172
400 0.00536 0.00395 0.00301 0.00259
200 0.01071 0.00789 0.00625 0.00517
#25 @ 1200 0.00298 0.00219 0.00174 0.00144
800 0.00446 0.00329 0.00260 0.00216
600 0.00595 0.00439 0.00347 0.00287
400 0.00893 0.00658 0.00521 0.00431
200 0.01786 0.01316 0.01042 0.00862
#30 @ 1200 0.00417 0.00307 0.00243 0.00201
800 0.00625 0.00461 0.00365 0.00302
600 0.00833 0.00614 0.00486 0.00402
400 0.01250 0.00921 0.00729 0.00603
200 0.02500 0.01842 0.01458 0.01207

This table provides wall

reinforcement ratios for
various rebar spacings and
wall thicknesses.
Structural Design Section 1.2.1
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OCTOBER 2016

PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF CONCRETE BLOCK WALLS

Structural Properties of Concrete Masonry Walls

(per metre or foot length)
Grouted Cells / metre 0.00 0.83 1.00 1.25 1.67 2.50 0.00
Cell/Dowel Spacing (mm) none 1200 1000 800 600 400 200

Nominal Size 150 mm 6 inch

2 3
Ae (mm x 10 ) 52.0 66.7 69.6 74.0 81.3 96.0 140.0
(in2) 24.6 31.5 32.9 35.0 38.4 45.4 66.2
4 6
Ix (mm x 10 ) 172 181 183 186 191 201 229
(in4) 126 133 134 136 140 147 168
3 6
Sx (mm x 10 ) 2.46 2.59 2.62 2.66 2.73 2.87 3.27
(in3) 45.8 48.2 48.7 49.5 50.7 53.3 60.8
2
Weight (kN/m ) 1.90 2.09 2.13 2.19 2.29 2.49 3.08
(psf) 39.6 43.7 44.6 45.8 47.9 52.0 64.3

Nominal Size 200 mm 8 inch

2 3
Ae (mm x 10 ) 74.5 94.5 98.3 104.0 113.6 132.7 190.0
(in2) 35.6 44.6 46.5 49.2 53.7 62.7 89.8
4 6
Ix (mm x 10 ) 442 464 468 475 485 507 572
(in4) 324 340 343 347 355 371 419
3 6
Sx (mm x 10 ) 4.66 4.88 4.93 5.00 5.11 5.34 6.02
(in3) 86.7 90.9 91.7 93.0 95.0 99.3 112.0
2
Weight (kN/m ) 2.46 2.75 2.81 2.89 3.03 3.32 4.18
(psf) 51.4 57.4 58.6 60.4 63.4 69.4 87.3

Nominal Size 250 mm 10 inch

2 3
Ae (mm x 10 ) 81.7 108.1 113.4 121.3 134.5 160.9 240.0
(in2) 38.6 51.1 53.6 57.3 63.5 76.0 113.4
4 6
Ix (mm x 10 ) 816 872 883 900 928 984 1152
(in4) 598 638 647 659 679 721 844
3 6
Sx (mm x 10 ) 6.80 7.27 7.36 7.50 7.73 8.20 9.60
(in3) 126.5 135.2 136.9 139.5 143.8 152.5 178.6
2
Weight (kN/m ) 2.97 3.35 3.43 3.55 3.74 4.12 5.28
(psf) 62.0 70.0 71.7 74.1 78.1 86.1 110.3

Nominal Size 300 mm 12 inch

2 3
Ae (mm x 10 ) 88.3 121.9 128.6 138.7 155.5 189.2 290.0
(in2) 41.7 57.6 60.8 65.5 73.5 89.4 137.0
4 6
Ix (mm x 10 ) 1341 1456 1479 1514 1571 1687 2032
(in4) 982 1066 1083 1108 1150 1235 1488
3 6
Sx (mm x 10 ) 9.25 10.04 10.20 10.44 10.83 11.63 14.01
(in3) 172.1 186.8 189.7 194.1 201.5 216.3 260.6
2
Weight (kN/m ) 3.53 4.00 4.10 4.24 4.48 4.95 6.38
(psf) 73.7 83.6 85.6 88.6 93.6 103.5 133.3

Note: Assume bond beams at 2.4m (8 ft) OC.

Table based on metric blocks and modules (190mm high units).
Assumed weight: 22 kN/m 2 140.4 pcf