masonry shear walls - asd vs strength design

huangyhg

masonry shear walls - asd vs strength design
when designing a particular masonry shear wall using strength design (2005 msjc ch. 3) i have sufficient shear and flexural capacity, but i get hung up on a check for the requirement & design of special boundary elements of msjc section 3.3.6.6 – 3, mu/(vu*lw) <= 3.0.
i am hung up because i want to avoid requiring any special boundary elements so i tried designing the wall using asd design (2005 msjc ch 2).  once again, sufficient shear and flexural capacity, but i do not see a check for any special boundary elements which leads me to believe my wall design is okay.  i am not the smartest person you ever met so here are perhaps my simple questions.
1.    why is there not a similar check for special boundary elements in asd design?
2.    is there another special requirement in asd design that i am missing?
3.    if asd design doesn't have any special requirements i think i am going to typically use that in lieu of strength design, any reason not to?
thanks in advance for any help & advice.

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i would use asd for your every day masonry design (out-of-plane flexure, and in-plane shear) unless you get into really tall walls like a theater or big box retail, then go to a strength design.
1. no special boundary elements in asd design is required because in asd design you keep the   
sandman21,  i thought the 1.5 seismic factor only applied to structures in seismic design category d?  unless there is something i am missing?
that is correct d and up