L.C.Peng has a formal request at B31.3 to remove Appendix P. At this week's B31.3 meeting, the design committee agreed to ballot the removal of Appendix P from B31.3 along with moving other Appendix P improvements to the base Code. I believe these changes will be accepted by the section committee but I do not expect this to make it in the 2014 Code book.
Appendix P provides a simple workaround the declaration of a single SL for equation (1b). [CAESAR II uses the max SL in (1b).] But the concept of "alternate rules" causes misunderstanding with many engineers.
Peng's engineering point was discussed at the meeting, his opinions are valued by the committee, but in my opinion, his conclusions were not generally accepted.
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Dave Diehl