©COMPUTERS AND STRUCTURES, INC.

, BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA DECEMBER 2001

STEEL FRAME DESIGN AISC-ASD89
Technical Note
Design Load Combinations

This Technical Note describes the default design load combinations in the pro-
gram when the AISC-ASD89 code is selected.

The design load combinations are the various combinations of the load cases
for which the structure needs to be checked. For the AISC-ASD89 code, if a
structure is subjected to dead load (DL), live load (LL), wind load (WL), and
earthquake induced load (EL), and considering that wind and earthquake
forces are reversible, the following load combinations may need to be defined
(ASD A4):

DL (ASD A4.1)
DL + LL (ASD A4.1)

DL ± WL (ASD A4.1)
DL + LL ± WL (ASD A4.1)

DL ± EL (ASD A4.1)
DL + LL ± EL (ASD A4.1)

These are also the default design load combinations in the program when the
AISC-ASD89 code is used. The user should use other appropriate loading
combinations if roof live load is separately treated, if other types of loads are
present, or if pattern live loads are to be considered.

When designing for combinations involving earthquake and wind loads, allow-
able stresses are increased by a factor of 4/3 of the regular allowable value
(ASD A5.2).

Live load reduction factors can be applied to the member forces of the live
load case on an element-by-element basis to reduce the contribution of the
live load to the factored loading. See Technical Note Overwrites Steel Frame
Design AISC-ASD89 for more information.

Design Load Combinations Page 1 of 1