Blow away panel design

[malakin]

It is considered appropriate to design timber docks with blow away panel decks. How do you design for blowing away at the right time (hurricane). I am considering a 5 foot by 10 foot panel made up of 3" by 8" members nailed at the four corners with 3.5/4" nails.

 

[JAE]

Wouldn't you just design each for different limit states? The panels would be designed for a defined non-hurricane wind load with a maximum limited ultimate strength just below the hurricane wind forces.

The dock would be designed to take the forces of the maximum limited ultimate strength times a safety factor, Q, with the panels in place. Also, the dock would be checked against the hurricane wind without the panels.

The trick is carefully determining the ultimate strength of the panel connections and ensuring the dock can take that wind force with the panels in place. The safety factor, Q, covers the variation in actual ultimate strength that may occur.

 

[idl]

I agree with JAE, especially with sentence #2 in para #2.