Minimum wind load to the Action Codes of ASCE 7-05/10/16 has been added in this release for the USA Head Code as an alternative to the existing automated Wind Loads for wind zones.

• When selected, the minimum wind load is applied to windward Wall and Roof panels and open structure wind load members. The applied load is dependent on the selected wind code year as follows:

  • ASCE 7-05 – 10 psf (0.479 kN/m²) for the entire building height

  • ASCE 7-10 – 16 psf (0.766 kN/m²) on walls and 8 psf (0.383 kN/m²) on roofs

  • ASCE 7-16 – 16 psf (0.766 kN/m²) on walls and 8 psf (0.383 kN/m²) on roofs

• The application of the minimum load is entirely automatic - for wind panels, the minimum load is decomposed first to area loads on the windward panels (taking into account their projected area in the wind direction) and then by the panel to the structure.

  • Panel decomposition to the structure follows the same method as that for Simple Wind Loads as detailed in this Help Topic Simple wind pressure loading.

• The applied minimum wind loads can be seen in the Wind View, with applied load being displayed in a similar manner to Simple Wind loads - when the load is cursored over the tooltip lists the applied pressures for Wall and Roof panels as shown in the picture below.
  

• Application - to enable and apply the new Minimum Wind loads, simply do the following:

  • Firstly in the Wind Wizard on the Velocity Pressure page, enable the new “Create Minimum Design Wind Loadcases…” option.
    

  • This turns on the “Min Design Load” column of checkboxes in the Wind Loadcases dialog. As shown in the picture below, this is included in both the main dialog and the Auto Generate dialog so you can either:

    • When no wind load cases exist currently, open the Auto dialog and enable the “Min Design Load” checkbox for minimum load applied in the directions you want.

    • In the main Wind Loadcases dialog for existing cases, enable the “Min Design Load” checkbox to ‘convert’ these to minimum design load cases.
      
      

  • Load Combinations - the Minimum Design Load Wind load cases are treated exactly the same as regular generated wind load cases when creating wind combinations - either via the Combination Generator or manually.

• Reporting- the contents of the “Wind Data” report item have been updated to include details of applied minimum loads under the heading “Minimum Design Wind Loads”. As shown in the picture below, this includes; the applied pressures values, a description of their application method and tables giving the areas and load values for each Wall/ Roof panel they are applied to.
  

For more detailed instructions, see the Help topic: Create minimum design wind loadcases.