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Structures
25 26 Loads Peter Gergely Dead Loads Live Loads Impact Loads Snow Loads Wind Effects Timothy A. Reinhold and Ben L. Sill Wind Climate Local Wind Exposure Mean Wind Speed Prole Turbulence Pressure Coefcients and Load Factors Earthquakes and Their Effects Charles Scawthorn Earthquakes: Causes and Faulting Measurement of Earthquakes and Seismic Hazard Analysis Effect of Soils on Ground Motion Structures: Earthquake Effects and Seismic Design Structural Analysis Eric M. Lui and Metin Oguzmert Introduction Cables Arches Trusses Beams and Frames Plates and Shells Inuence Lines and Inuence Surfaces Structural Stability Advanced Analysis Structural Steel William T. Segui Members Connections Composite Construction Computer Applications Concrete Edward G. Nawy Structural Concrete Flexural Design of Reinforced Concrete Members Shear and Torsion Design of Reinforced Concrete Members Prestressed Concrete Serviceability Checks Computer Applications for Concrete Structures Timber Donald E. Breyer Durability of Wood Wood Products Member Design Connections Lateral Force Design Masonry Design James E. Amrhein Basis of Design Masonry Materials Masonry Units Concrete Masonry Mortar Grout Behavior and Limits States of Structural Masonry Unreinforced or Plain Masonry Strength of Masonry Design of Reinforced Masonry Members Design of Structural Members Nonlinear Dynamics of Continuous Mass Structural Systems Bulent A. Ovunc Procedure of Analysis Geometrical Behavior Material Behavior Equations of Motion Linearization of the Moment and Force Displacement Relationships Consistent and Lumped Mass Matrix Methods Practical Applications 27 28 29 30

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Scour of Bridge Foundations E. V. Richardson Total Scour Long-Term Aggradation or Degradation General Scour Contraction Scour Local Scour at Bridge Piers Local Scour at Complex Piers Local Scour at Abutments

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25
Loads
25.1 Dead Loads 25.2 Live Loads
Occupancy Loads Bridge Live Loads

Peter Gergely
Cornell University

25.3 Impact Loads 25.4 Snow Loads

Structures are designed to carry various loads and load combinations without collapse and with an adequate margin of safety. In addition, several serviceability conditions (deections, cracking) must also be satised for most structures. The expected maximum values of most loads can be estimated only approximately, and building codes give only estimates of the minimum design loads, based on judgment. The design loads and load combinations rarely occur for most structures. The two main types of loads are dead loads and live loads. Dead loads include the weight of structural and most nonstructural components: beams, columns, walls, oor slabs, bridge decks, roong, partitions, and ceiling and ooring materials. Live loads include occupancy loads (people, building contents, trafc, movable partitions) and snow. Wind forces, earthquake forces, water pressure, and blast are similar to live loads, but they are usually considered separately. The weights of movable materials in warehouses are usually considered as live loads. In addition to these loads, temperature effects can also be considered as loads. Most designers and building codes rely on the Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures [ASCE 7-93, 1993] or the Standard Specications for Highway Bridges [AASHTO, 1989] for the design of buildings and bridges, respectively. Loads for special structures, such as liquid containers, towers, cranes, and power plants, are normally specied by trade or professional organizations. Loads are combined to produce the maximum member forces. However, codes allow reduction of combined loads if the probability of simultaneous occurrence of maximum effects is low. For example, a 0.75 factor may be applied for the combined dead load, live load, and wind or earthquake. These factors are different in the working stress design approach and in the strength (or the load and resistance factor) design approach.

25.1 Dead Loads

Dead loads are made up almost entirely of the weights of all structural elements and permanent xtures. Therefore, it is generally easy to calculate dead loads. However, in preliminary design the sizes of structural members (beams, columns, walls, and oor slabs) are not yet known and must be estimated. The unit weights of several common materials are listed in Table 25.1. The maximum forces in structures sometimes occur during construction for example, during the cantilever construction of bridges. It is important to consider the loads during various stages of construction.

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TABLE 25.1 Unit Weight of Common Construction Materials

Aluminum Brick Lightweight concrete Normal-weight concrete Steel Timber Roong Tile 6-in. hollow concrete block wall 165 lb/ft3 120 lb/ft3 90 to 110 lb/ft3 150 lb/ft3 490 lb/ft3 35 to 40 lb/ft3 5 to 10 lb/ft2 10 to 15 lb/ft2 43 lb/ft2

25.2 Live Loads

There are many types of live loads: occupancy, weights in warehouses, trafc loads on bridges, construction or maintenance forces, automobiles in parking garages, and snow. These are much more variable than dead loads and require larger safety margins. (Wind and earthquake loads are considered separately as environmental loads.) These live loads are gravity loads and must be positioned (acting on all or part of the area) to cause maximum forces in the member being designed.

Occupancy Loads
The major type of live load in buildings is caused by occupants. The minimum specied occupancy loads depend on the use and the likelihood of congregation of many people. Typical values of distributed loads are shown in Table 25.2. In ofce buildings, a 20 lb/ft2 uniform load is used to account for the weight of movable partitions. In addition to the distributed loads, structures are also designed for concentrated loads to account for concentrations of people or furniture. Typical values are 2000 lb on ofce oors and on slabs in garages for passenger cars. These are assumed to be acting on a 2.5 ft2 area. Since it is unlikely that a very large area or most oors of a building will have the full occupancy loads, most codes allow a live load reduction factor for such cases. However, reduction is not allowed for garages and areas of public assembly. In the design of a structural member, if the inuence area is more than 400 ft2, the reduction factor is 0.25 + 15 A (25.1)

with a minimum value of 0.5 for one oor and 0.4 for columns receiving loads from multiple oors. For columns the inuence area is four times the tributary area (thus equal to the area of all four adjoining panels), and for beams it is twice the tributary area.
TABLE 25.2 Typical Occupancy Loads (lb/ft2)
Theaters with xed seats Theaters with movable seats Corridors and lobbies Garages Restaurants Library reading rooms Ofces Stadium bleachers Stairways 60 100 100 50 100 60 50 100 100

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Bridge Live Loads

The design forces in a bridge depend on the magnitude and distribution of the vehicle load. It is not reasonable to assume that only heavy trucks will travel at close spacing, especially on a long bridge. For short bridges the actual position of the heaviest truck is important, whereas for long bridges a uniform load could be used in design. Design codes [AASHTO, 1989] specify standard loads for short and long bridges. Several standard trucks are specied for example, the H20-44, which has a total weight of 20 tons (the 44 signies the year of adoption). Of this weight, 8000 lb acts under the front axle and 32,000 lb under the rear wheels. Other standard truck loads are H10-44, H15-44, HS15-44, and HS20-44, where the HS designation is for semitrailers, with the weight allocation of 10, 40, and 40% for the cab, front trailer, and rear trailer wheels, respectively. These concentrated loads must be placed on the bridge to produce maximum forces (shears and moments) in the member being designed. In addition to the individual truck loads, codes specify a uniform lane load combined with a single concentrated load. For an H10-44 loading, the distributed load is 320 lb/ft and the concentrated load is 9000 lb; the respective numbers for HS20-44 are twice as large.

25.3 Impact Loads

Moving loads on bridges and crane girders can cause vibrations and increased stresses. Simple empirical impact formulas have been developed to account for this effect, although a large number of variables, such as surface roughness, speed, and span, inuence the impact effect. In the AASHTO [1989] code the impact formula is I= 50 L + 125 (25.2)

where L is in feet. The maximum value of the impact factor I is 0.3. For shorter bridges the impact effect can be high, especially when a heavy vehicle travels on the bridge at high speed. The loads created by elevators are often increased by 100% to account for impact. Likewise, impact factors have been recommended for various other types of machinery, ranging from 20 to 50%. Craneways have three factors 25, 20, and 10% for forces in the vertical, lateral, and longitudinal directions, respectively.

25.4 Snow Loads

The expected maximum snow accumulation in various regions is given in codes, usually for a 50-year mean recurrence interval. Values reach 50 psf in many areas but can be twice as much or more in regions with heavy snowfalls. In some regions for example, in parts of the Rocky Mountains local climate and topography dictate the design snow load level. The weight of snow depends on its density and typically ranges from 0.5 to 0.7 psf for 1 in. of snow after some compaction. Fresh dry snow has a specic gravity of only 0.2. For at roofs (outside Alaska) the snow load is p f = 0.7C eC t Ipg (25.3)

Ce is the exposure factor (0.8 for windy, open areas, 0.9 for windy areas with some shelter, 1.0 if wind does not remove snow, 1.1 with little wind, and 1.2 in a forested area). However, for large roofs (greater than 400 ft in one direction), Ce should not be less than unity [Lew et al. 1987]. Ct is the thermal factor (1.0 for heated structures, 1.1 just above freezing, 1.2 for unheated structures). I is the importance factor (ranges from 0.8 to 1.2 for various occupancies). pg is the ground snow load from maps. The at-roof values are corrected for sloping roofs:
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ps = C s p f

(25.4)

where Cs is the slope factor, which is given in a diagram in ASCE 7-93 [1993]. For warm roofs (Ct = 1.0), the slope factor is 1.0 for slopes less than about 30 and reduces linearly to zero as the slope increases to 70. Thus roofs with slopes greater than 70 are assumed to have no snow load. Unbalanced snow load caused by a certain wind direction also must be considered.

Dening Terms
Dead load Gravity loads produced by the weight of structural elements, permanent parts of structures such as partitions, and weight of permanent equipment. Impact factor Accounts for the increase in stresses caused by moving load effects. Live load Loads caused by occupancy and movable objects, including temporary loads. Serviceability Limit on behavior in service, such as on deections, vibrations, and cracking.

References
AASHTO. 1989. Standard Specications for Highway Bridges, 14th ed. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Ofcials, Washington, DC. ASCE 7-93. 1993. Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures, American Society of Civil Engineers, New York. Lew, H. S., Simiu, E., and Ellingwood, B. 1987. Loads. In Building Structural Design Handbook, ed. R. N. White and C. G. Salmon, pp. 943. John Wiley & Sons, New York.

Further Information
Uniform Building Code, International Conference of Building Ofcials, 5360 South Workman Mill Road, Whittier, CA 90601. ASCE Standard, ASCE 7-93, Minimum Design Loads for Buildings and Other Structures, American Society of Civil Engineers, 345 East 47th Street, New York, NY 10017.

2005 by CRC Press LLC