Conveyor Loads
Conveyor Loads
(OP)
I am calculating foundation loads for several conveyors and am curious whether I should include seismic forces. These are for an area that used to be UBC zone 2. I have been told that no one else does this. Is there a special design spec for conveyors?
Thanks,
-Mike
Thanks,
-Mike






RE: Conveyor Loads
If you do include seismic we usually include dead load and the operational TPH material live load. We do not use the maximum "surcharge" material live load for design. We do put on the drawings that conveyor designs do not condsider seismic forces and at the discretion of the owner can be included.
RE: Conveyor Loads
Thanks for the help, you make several good points. I see now after a few more hours of programming that my seismic forces are about 25% to 30% of the wind forces so the break even point would be about zone 3 roughly. I do have a conveyor indoors so I'll probably use seismic there for the purpose of checking for minimum stability, but due to the use of standard parts should be better than needed. Using the surcharge LL is probably overly conservative as you indicate.
Putting a note on the drawing about seismic design is a nice touch and seems to be the appropriate thing to do. I would like to do that here but probably won't be able to.
Thanks again, it's nice to get a viewpoint from someone else in the business.
-Mike
RE: Conveyor Loads
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