Interior Partition Wall Pressures

[KarlT]

What kind of pressure difference do y'all get for interior partitions? I have one storey community club & gymnasium project with a 2x8 bearing wall 18 ft high, picking up a fair bit of roof load from two spans, but the wall is interior. I am trying to verify that the combined axial load and lateral bending is not exceeding the stud strength and I am close to the max.

Our code (Canadian) seems to say that the pressures we should use would be the pressure differences between the windward and leeward sides of a building which amounts to about 3 psf max according to my calcs. Does that sound about right?

 

[JAE]

The IBC 2000, in the USA, specifies 5 psf for all interior partitions.

 

[jheidt2543]

What causes the 5 psf? Open windows or HVAC forced air systems? I guess I'm wondering about the reasoning behind the code requirement.

 

[JAE]

Probably a lot of "little" things - like differential interior pressures due to wind forces and leakage in the building; or lateral forces from bookshelves or other attached items; or lateral seismic forces; or lateral forces from engineers playing paper basketball and crashing the net into the wall.

 

[jtstruct]

JAE,

I am familiar with the 5psf interior wall load requirement in the UBC, but I have not been able to find a similar requirement in the IBC 2000. Can you provide the section where this is listed?

Thanks,
jt

 

[TFL]

1607.13

 

[JAE]

That's it!