Residential Mountainous Engineering - Books, Articles, Recommendations

[the Paper Owl]

Good Afternoon everyone,
I want to inquire if anyone has great suggestions / recommendations for learning more about "mountainous" residential structural engineering apart from code publications.

I understand the different factors that arise from beginning the structural design of a residence on a mountain side (shout-out to Figure 301.2(4) - BASIC DESIGN WIND VELOCITIES FOR MOUNTAIN REGIONS), where wind, snow, soil characteristics, seismic category C play more into your design but I want to ask if anyone has every encountered a good book / resource regarding the subject.

Any and all recommendations would be wonderful.

Thank you.

 

[driftLimiter]

Hello,

We design in mountainous regions just about every project. There is nothing really magic about it except how you load the structure. In my experience the local building official is the one who provides the most direction on how to deal with these regions.

For example in my area, a special wind region, with high snow loads, and high seismic forces (the trifecta) the building official provides additional limits on when we can use the Residential Code (if above a certain elevation then we are forced to design by IBC).

Also we have special wind region so the Building Official basically specifies what wind load to use. Ours here is 120 mph V ult for Risk Category II buildings. This does not include additional speed ups per ASCE 7.

Finally the snow loads, oh the snow loads, in the mountains around here we see anything from 190 psf up towards 500 psf ground snow being required, by the building official. The building official provides different direction of how to use this snow load (example. roof load reductions are modified, and ground snow load can be taken as something less for determination of drift loads.)

Basically because of the trifecta we have, the building officials says registered engineers only (no RDs) and IBC only for almost every type of building. No simplified methods, no prescriptive design.

I wish I had some actual resources to offer you, my career has just been a constant crash course in these things. I have oft wondered what a design without high snow, wind, and seismic forces would be like.
I will keep an eye on your thread and if I think of anything or hear about anything certainty come back and add it.

Best of luck
-p

 

[the Paper Owl]

Drift Limiter, thank you honestly for the detailed response. I'll reach out to our local building official and try to get more details / ask the same inquiry. Your response was very helpful. Enjoy your night / day (depending on your location).