gabled patio cover - ridge beam support sanity check 2

[alo53]

Hi - looking for a sanity check on the load path / sizing of one of the members on a patio cover we had designed and are about to build. I am an aerospace engineer with structural design experience in that field, but not in building design and construction. The design is a gabled outdoor patio structure with large beams.

The ridge beam is designed as a 6x14 DF#1, supported by an arched ridge support beam / collar tie that is tied to the rafters and queen posts by 5/8 lag bolts. The span between queen posts is about 12 ft, while the span between where lag bolts can tie the beam to the rafters is about 6 ft. The beam just feels undersized and insufficiently supported to me but the engineer working on our project assures me it is not. I just wanted to see what others think and if I should challenge it any further. Any reassurances would be much appreciated . i have been having fun with this project, we actually have all the steel columns erected already and we are almost ready to purchase all the lumber.

Here is a picture of what the structure will look like:

here is the structural layout

here is the dimensions of the beam in question:

here is how the engineer specified connections to the 6x8 rafter

here is the analysis on the ridge showing the reacting loads:

here is the analysis on the ridge support showing the reacting loads. Note the assumption of span in this calculation, it is assuming the span is the distance between where the collar tie touches rafters and where we can get a lag bolt in:

here is another sketch:

another question i am trying to wrap is the ridge beam is supporting the last part of the span of the rafters, which is supporting the ridge support, which is obviously supporting the ridge. is this some sort of unstable feedback loop?

 

[alo53]

The engineer said he did. What do you think of the lack of horizontal beam between the purlins? We could still add something if we wanted.

 

[alo53]

another update. we decided to wrap the columns in stone veneer and wanted to widen them a bit, so put 18'' column blocks around the steel columns and filled the cell up with concrete all the way to the top. so the steel columns are completely encased in concrete now from the top down to 4 ft below ground lol.