Assignment 1.

1 (Class discussion Question)

The National Defence Forces has requested the design of a communication center to be in Pretoria. The building is
to be 48 m long, and it has been suggested that a steel portal frame be used with the frames being at 6 m center to
center.

The building will be situated on top of, and 75 m away from the edge of a 50 m high escarpment which has a slope
of 65o off horizontal. The surrounding terrain may be described as undeveloped, where any obstacle is spaced at a
distance of at least 20 times its height from any other obstacle. The site altitude is approximately 1 800 m above
mean sea level.
Openings on all surfaces (considering small windows, doors and vents) will amount to 5 % of the surface area. In
addition, the long wall on the windward side will be installed with two 8 m x 3 m roller-shutter doors.
Draw a section through the portal frame structure indicating the magnitude and direction of possible wind loads
acting on one typical internal frame.
 Homework 1.1 Solution Steps

Reference Calculations
SANS 10160
BASIC WIND SPEED: V b =C prob V b ,0

Determine fundamental wind speed V b , 0 and mean return period to get C prob

( )
α
z −z 0
TERRAIN ROUGHNESS AND HEIGHT: - C r ( z ) =1.36 (terrain roughness factor)
z g−z 0
Obtain:
 Z e through minimum effective height, Z c
 Gradient height, Z g
 Height of reference, Z 0

TOPOGRAPHY: - Determine Topography factor (C 0(z )

PEAK WIND SPEED: v p ( z )=v b . peak x c r ( z ) x c o ( z ) m/s

1 2 2
PEAK WIND PRESSURE: q p ( z ) = x ρ x v p ( z ) N /m
2
EXTERNAL PRESSURE COEFFICIENTS:

For wind at 0 0 (normal to long side)

For wind at 90 0 (normal to gable end)

INTERNAL PRESSURE COEFFICIENTS

Check for dominance of wall with roller shutter doors:

 Area of roller shutter doors on windward long wall
 Area of opening in windward long wall
 Area of other surfaces
 Area of openings in the other surfaces
 % of openings to surface area
For wind at 0 0 (normal to long side)

For wind at 90 0 (normal to gable end)

SUMMARY OF PRESSURE COEFFICIENTS

For wind at 0 0 (normal to long side)

For wind at 90 0 (normal to gable end)