Throughout a significant portion of the United States, the design snow load on roofs typically exceeds the roof design live load, so many structural engineers need to be familiar with snow load determination. The level of complexity in calculating the design snow loads for a building or other structure can vary from simple to complex, depending on the building location, the roof geometry, and the roof finish. The design snow load calculations for a flat roof with no parapets on a big-box store located in Iowa is relatively simple. …
Author Archives : Vincent E. Sagan, P.E.
Vincent E. Sagan, P.E., is a Senior Staff Engineer for the Metal Building Manufacturers Association and a member of ASCE 7 Subcommittee on Snow and Rain Loads. He can be contacted at vsagan@mbma.com.
When the author first started his structural engineering career in the 1980s, common cold-formed steel applications in buildings were primarily limited to steel roof and floor deck, interior non-load bearing partition walls, and curtain wall framing; in other words, secondary members. As a structural engineer designing buildings, one could rely on manufacturers’ literature, such as steel deck catalogs, or delegate the design of these cold-formed steel applications to contractors or specialty structural engineers through performance specifications. Significant experience in cold-formed steel framing design was not required. …