EUROCODE LOAD COMBINATIONS FOR STEEL STRUCTURES

5 . In d u s t r i al bu i l d i n gs
5.1 General

Although industrial buildings can be designed to support

mezzanine floors and cranes, they are primarily loaded by their
self weight, service loads, imposed loads or snow loads and wind
loads. Service loads tend to be project specific but a nominal
value of around 0.05 kN/m2 should always be considered in
structural design to allow for loads from nominal lighting. This
value will increase if more substantial services such as sprinkler
systems or air-conditioning are incorporated. The self weights of
false ceilings over intermediate floors are often also treated as
service loads. Snow loads and wind loads are site specific and are
influenced by the geometry of the structure and its orientation.
Snow loads are determined by reference to EN 1991-1-3 and its
UK National Annex. Wind loads are determined by reference to
EN 1991-1-4 and its UK National Annex, but designers might also
like to refer to Reference [5].
Clause 3.3.2 (1) of EN 1991-1-1 states that on roofs, imposed
loads and snow loads or wind loads should not be applied together
simultaneously. This implies (1) that snow load and imposed load
should not appear together in any given load combination, and (2)
that imposed load and wind load should not appear together in any
given load combination. The basis for this clause is that it would be
unreasonable to consider that maintenance would be undertaken
in severe weather conditions. The first implication is in line with
current practice in the UK, where, for roofs that are not accessible
except for normal maintenance and repair, the loading would
typically be taken as the larger of an imposed load of 0.6 kN/m2 or
the snow load (i.e. the imposed loads and snow loads are not
applied simultaneously). The same value of 0.6 kN/m2 is also
recommended for roof slopes less than 30 in Table NA.7 of the UK
National Annex to EN 1991-1-1. The second implication is that for
cases where the snow load is less than 0.6 kN/m2, then it is only
this lesser value that would be applied in combination with the wind
load, which, coupled with the fact that the combination factor for
snow loading (0 = 0.5) is lower than that for imposed loading (0
= 0.7), may result in significantly lower roof loading (in combination
with wind) than is used in current UK practice. It is recommended
in this guide that imposed loads and wind loads continue to be
considered in combination for the design of portal frames in the
UK. Given the different combination factors for snow and imposed
loading, the snow load would have to be greater than 1.4 times the
imposed load (i.e. greater than 0.84 kN/m2) to be critical in the
wind (leading) plus imposed or snow load combination. Where the
imposed load or snow load is the leading variable action, the snow
load simply needs to exceed the imposed load to become critical.

The concept of factors was introduced in Section 3 and Table 5.1

presents the factors that are relevant to portal frame design. In
Table 5.1, Gkc = permanent crane action and Gkc + Qkc = total crane
action (from Clause A.2.3 of EN 1991-3 Annex A).

Table 5.1: factors relevant to portal frame structures

Imposed loads on roofs

Snow loads at altitude less than

or equal to 1000 m
Wind loads

Crane loads

0.7

0.0

0.0

0.5

0.2

0.0

1.0

0.9

Gkc/(Gkc+Qkc)

0.5

0.2

0.0

5.1.1 EN 1991-1-3: 2003 - Snow loading

In Section 2 of EN 1991-1-3, Classification of actions, snow loads
are classified as variable fixed actions unless otherwise specified in
the code. In this section it also states that exceptional snow loads
and exceptional snow drifts may be treated as accidental actions,
depending on geographical locations. The UK National Annex
confirms this in clauses NA.2.4 and NA.2.5 and also states that
Annex B should be used to determine the drifted snow load case.
This approach is consistent with current UK practice for designers
using BS 6399-3 and BRE Digest 439 [9] to determine uniform
snow loads and the loads caused by the build up of drifted snow.
5.1.2 EN 1991-1-4: 2003 - Wind loading
Wind actions are defined as variable fixed actions. The process
for determining wind pressures is based on a 10-minute mean
wind velocity and a new map has been provided in the UK National
Annex. Designers who have been working with BS 6399-2 will find
the approach for determining wind pressures very similar although
some terminology has changed. The publication Designers
Guide to EN 1991-1-4 Eurocode 1: Actions on structures, general
actions part 1-4. Wind actions [2] is very important in explaining
the limitations of the new European Standard.
Although wind pressures vary depending on site location, altitude,
orientation etc, the pressure and force coefficients depend only on
the external shape of the structure. By looking at the overall
pressure coefficients, irrespective of the actual site wind
pressures, it is possible to determine the critical load cases. The
majority of portal frames have roof pitches of 5, 6 or 10. Figures
5.1c, 5.1d and 5.1e have been produced for portal frames with
these roof pitches and present overall pressure coefficients.
Figures 5.1a and 5.1b have been included to show the
intermediate steps required to arrive at the figures in 5.1c. Similar
intermediate steps have not been included for Figures 5.1d and
5.1e, although some extended expressions have been shown.
External pressure coefficients for the walls have been extracted
from Table 7.1 of EN 1991-1-4 assuming an h/d ratio 0.25. Table
7.4a of EN 1991-1-4 cannot be used for roof coefficients; instead,
the UK National Annex directs us to use Table 10 of BS 6399-2.
Once the basic external coefficients have been established, to
comply with the requirements of Clauses 5.3 and 7.2.2 of EN
1991-1-4 two addition factors must be applied to the external force
coefficients:
1. The structural factor cscd for the majority of portal frames the
height will be less than 15 m and the value of cscd is taken as 1.
2. For buildings with h/d 1, most portal frames, the external wind
forces on the windward and leeward faces are multiplied by 0.85.

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