Wind Loads Calculation (ASCE 7)

Henry Kurniadi
 Structure Loads

Dead Loads: from the weight of the structure

itself.
Wind Loads: could be determined based on
ASCE 7 (US Standard), Eurocode 1 (EU Code),
Wind Code 2004 (Hong Kong Code), GB 50009
(China PR Standard), AS/NZS 1170.2
(Australia/NZ Standard) or other
national/international standards/codes.
WIND LOADS
 Wind Loads According to ASCE 7
Wind loads are randomly
applied dynamic loads.
They are depend on the
wind speed, shape, height
and topographic location
of the structure.
Calculations using US
customary units (Metric
units also available in
ASCE 7-05).
Wind Speed Curve in Different Region

Sea-side Open area Built-up area Big city (Currently not used)
 Surface Roughness and Exposure
Surface Definitions Examples
Roughness and
Exposure
B Urban and suburban areas,
wooded areas,
or other terrain with numerous
closely spaced obstructions
having the size of single-family
dwellings or larger.
C Open terrain with scattered obstructions
having heights generally less than 30 ft
(9.1 m). This category
includes flat open country, grasslands,
and all water surfaces in
hurricane prone regions.

D Flat, unobstructed areas and water

surfaces
outside hurricane prone regions.
This category includes
smooth mud flats, salt flats, and
unbroken ice.
 Basic Wind Speed, V
Basic wind speed, V, based
on 3-second gusts, 33 ft (10
m) above ground in a
Ground Roughness
Exposure C (defined in mph
or m/s).
Some regions, such as:
Taiwan, coastal China,
coastal USA and Japan have
very high wind speed;
others such as: Indonesia,
India and inland USA have
lower wind speed.
 Air Flow

The more the air is streamed, the less the reaction

force exerted by the structure.
Wind force highly depends on the shape of the
structure.
Wind Directionality Factor, Kd
Wind Directionality
Factor, Kd shall be
determined from Table
6-4.
This factor to
accommodate the
cross-sectional shape of
the structure.
 Importance Factor, I
An importance
factor, I, for the building
or other structure shall
be determined from
Table 6-1 based on
building and structure
categories listed in
Table 1-1.
This factor to
accommodate the
importance of the
structure.
 Velocity Pressure Coefficient Kz
Velocity pressure exponent,
Kz, depends on the site
relative height to the
ground, z.
This means for rooftop
structure, z, would be the
total height of the
component and the building
its installed.
This factor to accommodate
the absolute height of the
structure from ground level.
 Topographic Factor, Kzt
Local abrupt topography affects wind near the ground.
Wind speed depends on shape of hill, location of building, and height above ground.
The value of Kzt was taken as 1 with assumption flat region environment.
This factor to accommodate the topographic area of the structure location.
 Force Coefficient, Cf
For chimneys, tanks &
Force coefficient, Cf other similar structures:
determined based on
the shape of the
structure.
This factor to
accommodate the
wind-facing area of the
For trussed towers:
structure.
 Velocity Pressure, qz
From Bernoullis equation of flow, the wind
pressure: (q in psf, V in mph)

The velocity pressure, qz, evaluated at height z

shall be calculated by:
 Gust Effect Factor, G
Factor accounting for:
Gustiness and turbulence
Gust frequency
Gust size
Frequency of structure
Structural damping
Aerodynamic admittance
Gust correlation
Gust effect factor, G, could be calculated by

In general, gust more likely to occur at lower altitude.

 Wind Loads According to ASCE 7
FWT
Design wind force for
each component shall
be determined by:
d
FSP FCT FL

e
FAC
c
Moment because of
wind force calculated
b
FBF as:
a M FSF a FBF b FAC c FSP FCT FL d FWT e
FSF