Wind Loading on a Canopy that is attached to an existing building.

[diegotorres1]

Hello everyone. I am an Engineering intern and I am working on a project where we are adding a canopy that is about 14 ft tall, 22ft wide and 57ft long. The canopy is being attached to the main structure as it butts up against the (e) building wall, on the other side, I will have some HSS posts for the main framing. The building to which it is being added is 151ft wide and 351 ft long and about 29ft tall. The canopy is being added to shorter side of the building. The owner is anticipating some role down covers on the canopy for when the colder days come by, they can role down and turn on the space heaters inside. i have two questions that pertain to the wind design to this scenario:
1) Since the canopy is large what type of wind loading scenario would this be designed for? is the non-structure section of the ASCE7-10 still cover this? Or is there a specific provision in the code that details the wind loading being applied to the canopy.
2)The role downs to enclose the canopy are temporary and will not be used all the time. Can this potentially be designed as an enclosed structure and have the posts and beams of the canopy see wind loading up against the "wall" of the canopy? has anyone seen this type of application and what was your approach to the wind distribution.

 

[Lomarandil]

1) I'd certainly call this a structure. Why not?

2) I'd be tempted to design the canopy for a partially enclosed condition in the direction toward your large building (even though it might not quite meet the requirements of A[sub]oi[/sub]/A[sub]gi[/sub]<=0.20 depending on whether the side walls are down are not at the time). In the direction along your large building, I think you'd need to check both the open case and the partially enclosed case.

I'm imagining heavy canvas type tent walls as your "roll downs". If so, depending on the connection between the roll downs and the frame, you may be able to get away with not designing the frame MWFRS for the enclosed case, arguing that by the time winds get significant, those have torn free from the frame. But that's a case for engineering judgement made with more information, not of the armchair style. If you want to go down that path, talk to your mentor some more.

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The name is a long story -- just call me Lo.