Roof‐Snow Load for Seismic‐Design Calculations

Abstract

The lateral loads imposed on a structure during an earthquake are functions of the peak ground acceleration and the total mass of the structure among other parameters. For structures located in snowy regions, the question arises as to the appropriate roof‐snow load to be used in earthquake calculations. Various codes and load standards suggest values for the snow load, which is to be combined with dead load in earthquake analysis. In this paper statistical information on daily ground‐snow loads and statistical information on the conversion factor between roof and ground loads are used to determine appropriate roof‐snow loads for earthquake analysis. As defined herein, the appropriate roof‐snow load is such that the exceedance probability for the design seismic base shear is