Aquarium snow leopard exhibit partition load

[YoungGunner]

I'm re-designing the floor slab and beams for an upper level mezzanine for various exhibits in an aquarium, one being a snow leopard exhibit. Pictures show that those tend to have mini mountains, which I assume is just shotcrete over framing. This will likely be the heaviest exhibit in the area. I do not know how tall the exhibit will be but I do assume that as aquariums/zoos tend to do, this exhibit is not necessarily the only one that will be here in the lifespan so I want to design for a conservative load.

Already designing for a 100 psf live load - what should I do for the "exhibit partition" load? I started with just thinking 2" NW concrete and 15 psf for the usual partition load which gets me extra 40 psf, but gut feeling tells me that not be enough if they decide to put actual boulders in (which some pictures show online). Anyone with experience or insight here?

 

[Tomfh]

Won't shotcrete mountains potentially be more than 40psf?

 

[YoungGunner]

I was considering the framing supporting the shotcrete would be 15psf (matching partitions) and the shotcrete would be 2" thick, and just using conservative normal weight concrete as the basis, that gets 25psf. So that's where I got 40psf. However, we also have the 100psf live load in there too. Curious how much more you'd think it would be?

 

[rb1957]

is it a live animal ?

"Hoffen wir mal, dass alles gut geht !"
General Paulus, Nov 1942, outside Stalingrad after the launch of Operation Uranus.

 

[YoungGunner]

Yes, a snow leopard.

 

[rb1957]

ok, then it's needs to be rigid (and heavy) ... not foam and paper mache

"Hoffen wir mal, dass alles gut geht !"
General Paulus, Nov 1942, outside Stalingrad after the launch of Operation Uranus.

 

[YoungGunner]

I would appreciate comments that give specifics of what should be done. The present comments bring me no closer to having an idea of what is recommended.

 

[structSU10]

Do you have a consultant on the team for 'life support' or the likes the specializes in the needs for various animals that may be on exhibit? They may have some useful information. Otherwise I may start with finding out the weight, running speed, jumping distance / height, and trying to generate some reasonable forces for a snow leopard that might be overly active. A colleague in the past did a similar exercise for elephants to determine the enclosure would contain them stampeding. I would think an animal of that size would generate loads not too much different from a human, so perhaps a substructure similar to what may be used for a rock climbing wall may be needed for the artificial mountains - which I can't imagine would be too heavy.

One of my bigger concerns may be durability of the slab below from animal droppings/urine and such.

 

[rb1957]

funny you should mention elephants. a friend of mine was trying to get across to people that the pressure load on a floor was enormous. so he did a ppt with a floor and kept adding elephants (assume 1 ton per) ... elephants on top of elephants ... "oh, that's a lot of elephants/load" ...

"Hoffen wir mal, dass alles gut geht !"
General Paulus, Nov 1942, outside Stalingrad after the launch of Operation Uranus.