A Consideration of Snow, Rain, and Rain-On-Snow Loads for Pre-Engineered Steel Structures
Sunday, July 1st, 2007
A complete knowledge of snow loads is necessary for anyone planning to use pre-engineered buildings, especially in the northern U.S. Design Snow Load is a number that portrays the maximum probable weight of snow that can be present on a roof at a given time. The expression of live load is very dependent on building and building occupancy, but snow load correlates specifically to location on the building. Ultimate design snow loads are extensively affected by the ground snow levels throughout a specific location. Correctly engineering a pre-fabricated building to its particular design snow load requires the employment of certain formulations correlated to the selected ground snow amount. These factors include flat roof snow load, the ground snow load total amount, as well as temperature and exposure probabilities. Totals are subsequently amended for steeper inclines of roofs.