Snow loads in Poland

[dozer]

I've searched the internet until my fingers are sore. Does anybody know of a resource on the internet that will give roof snow load design criteria for locations in Poland? FYI, I'm in the US.

Thanks

 

[Lutfi]

Be careful and make sure you get local data. Even in the US, building codes defer you to local authorities to determine snow load.

I used to work and live in southwest Virginia and building codes always required us to obtain snow load from local authorities.

MIL HDBK-1002/2A does not list Poland. However, it lists Iceland and Germany. In some locations in Germany such as Stuttgart, the snow load is 45 PSF ground snow load. For Iceland it calls for 30 PSF. This may give you an idea.

I am not sure if Poland subscribes to Euro Code or not. I would look there as well.

Good luck.

 

[FEMdude]

Check this out:

http://www.prz.rzeszow.pl/~kozlowsk/s5.html

(My guess is between 80 and 140 kg / m3

 

[ijzer]

In Poland it is depending on which zone.
See PN-80/B-02010 Polsih Code for snow loads. I know that for zone 1 it is 70 kg/m2

 

[dozer]

FEMDude,
Yeah, I found the same web site, but I didn't find anything definitive there. I was hoping I could find something in English on the web. I looks like I'm going to have to order the Polish Code mentioned by ijzer.

General question to all:
We did get some info from the client saying that the "characteristic load Qk=1.1 kN/m^2 and the load factor is 1.4. OK, actually two questions. First, is the load factor to be used in confunction with what we call in the US LRFD? Second, is the characteristic load a ground snow load? If so, it seems low to me.

 

[TimMorgan]

Snow loads in Poland can vary significantly dependent on region and can get as high as 4.5kN.m^2 in extreme cases. This said, in my experience the average load is approx. 1.5kN.m^2 which fits in pretty well with your 1.1 * 1.4 factor supplied by client.

I can't comment on your US terminology, however, working from the UK I would take the characeteristic load, multiply it by the 1.4 factor (which is a standard dead load factor in UK anyway) and then design to Yield Stress.

Don't be too surprised that European Snow Loads are lower than those in the US. With the last few revisions of the US codes, your values seem to have gone through the roof (pardon the pun) and have left most of the European equivalents well behind. My own feeling is that the US codes are real over-kill, particularly given that during the President's Day storm last year (i.e. 6ft of snow in New York) I saw one canopy which I had designed to 90 psf with about 3" of snow resting on it!

Tim

 

[Inzynier]

In order to determine local building code requirements for snow loads in Poland you need to obtain the following documentN-80/B-02010 "Obciazenia w obliczeniach statycznych. Obciazenie sniegiem " . This document can be ontained from Polish Commitee for Standardisation, i.e.:
Polski Komitet Normalizacyjny
Biuro Komitetu Osrodek Informacji i Dokumentacji
00-139 Warszawa ul. Elektoralna 2
tel. 620 66 46, 620 02 41 wew. 650
fax (22) 24 71 22

See link below

http://www.pkn.pl/PNAdm1/szukaj.php?n=&nw=f&t=snow+loads&tw=w&i=&il=20&j=en&Szukaj=Submit

http://www.pkn.pl/PNAdm1/index.php?j=en&n=&nw=f&t=&tw=w&i=&il=20&s=1

I hope this will help.