We are designing a small concrete building with special reinforced concrete shear walls in RAM Structural System. The walls are 8" thick with 1 curtain of reinforcement. The axial/flexure and shear capacities of the walls are more than adequate. However, in some of the shorter section cuts that are around or near wall openings we are receiving the following design warnings:
ACI 318-14 states:
Since Vu is relatively low and by inspection not greater than "2 * Acv * λ * √(f'c)", it appears that the "hw/lw≥ 2.0" parameter is causing the design warning. We believe that the length of the segment is incorrectly being used for lw, instead of the length of the "entire wall" as stated in ACI 318-14. This is causing hw/lw to be greater than 2.0 and thus, causing the design warning. Is this a known issue? Is it safe to ignore these design warnings?