Steel Buildings in Europe

Part 3: Actions 3 - 10 6 IMPOSED LOADS 6.1 General Generally, imposed loads on buildings shall be classified as variable actions. They arise from occupancy. They include normal use by persons, furniture and moveable objects, vehicles, anticipating rare events (concentrations of persons or of furniture, momentary moving or stacking of objects, etc.). Movable partitions should be treated as imposed loads. Imposed loads are represented by uniformly distributed loads, line loads or point loads applied on roofs or floors, or a combination of these loads. Floor and roof areas in buildings are sub-divided into categories according to their use (EN 1991-1-1 Table 6.1). The characteristic values q k (uniformly distributed load) and Q k (concentred load) related to these categories are specified in EN 1991-1-1 Table 6.2 or in the relevant National Annex. For the design of a single floor or a roof, the imposed load shall be taken into account as a free action applied at the most unfavourable part of the influence area of the action effects considered. For imposed loads for floors and accessible roofs, the characteristic value q k may be multiplied by reduction factors due to the loaded area and the number of storeys (EN 1991-1-1 § 6.3.1.2). More information is provided in Section 6 of Multi-storey steel buildings. Part 3: Actions [10] . Characteristic values of imposed loads are specified in EN 1991-1-1 Section 6.3 as follows: 6.3.1 Residential, social, commercial and administration areas 6.3.2 Areas for storage and industrial activities 6.3.3 Garages and vehicle traffic areas 6.3.4 Roofs. 6.2 Actions induced by cranes according to EN 1991-3 6.2.1 General Most industrial buildings have to be equipped with handling devices to allow movement and carriage of loads through the building. A typical crane used in industrial buildings is shown in Figure 6.1 with the main technical terms. One of the convenient solutions is the installation of cranes. The structure is subject to loads acting both vertically and laterally. Such actions can become the dominant ones for the structure.