Utilization Ratio Guide

1. Supply both Demand and Allowable

TOOL-010 requires the user to enter both values explicitly. Allowable is not generated, verified, or inferred by the tool.

2. Keep Demand and Allowable in the same quantity family

Supported families are Force, Moment, Stress/Pressure, Length/Deflection, Distributed Load, Area, Second Moment of Area, Section Modulus, and Dimensionless Ratio.

Compatible units may differ, but cross-dimension comparisons are rejected.

3. Calculate the deterministic ratio

TOOL-010 uses only utilization = demand / allowable. The percentage display is the same ratio multiplied by 100.

4. Read the threshold as neutral context

• Below user-defined allowable ratio
• Equal to user-defined allowable ratio
• Above user-defined allowable ratio

These labels do not mean PASS/FAIL, SAFE/UNSAFE, code compliance, or structural safety.

5. Mandatory interpretation limits

• Allowable is user-supplied and is not generated or verified by this tool.
• This tool performs a deterministic ratio calculation only.
• The result is not a code-compliance determination.
• The result is not a safety determination.
• Verify Demand, Allowable, units, and engineering basis independently.
• TOOL-010 does not infer Allowable from TOOL-001 through TOOL-009.

6. What TOOL-010 does not do

TOOL-010 does not calculate material strength, section capacity, allowable stress, or design capacity. It does not apply AISC, Eurocode, ACI, GB, or other design-code rules. It does not recommend sections or optimize designs.