Brace Clean Agent Pipe to Metal Stud Gyp Wall

[wlcoregon]

I am a civil engineer with some structural skills, I have calculated seismic bracing for fire sprinkler pipes always anchored to the building concrete or steel frame.

I have a situation where pipe for clean agent suppressant has been attached to metal stud gyp wall with unistrut. The project managers are not requiring seismic calcs for this bracing. Need to know any code limitations and method of determining wall strength capability. This is new construction so I assume the wall construction is seismically braced, I am in the process of verifying this.

 

[msquared48]

If this is an interior partition wall, there is a 5 psf minimum lateral force to be applied and resisted. It would not have been designed for any vertical loads, although there should be some capacity depending on the gage of the studs. A design manual with load tables should be available from the steel stud manufacturer since the construction is recent.

If the wall is an interior bearing wall, then there should be tables from the supplier that delineate the allowable vertical load combined with the 5 psf minimum.

If it is an exterior bearing wall, the same comments apply, but the lateral loads will be higher.

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
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