design wind loads on open structures

huangyhg

design wind loads on open structures
first of all, i am venturing to guess that you are not a structural engineer.  if your not an engieer, i suggest you consult w/ one because you are dealing with a subject many structural engineers have trouble with.  secondly, if you are a structural engineer, you must only have a portion of chapter 6 "wind loads" from asce 7-98.  there is a method to determine wind loading on an open structure.  use eqns. 6-15 along w/ 6-13 and disregard internal pressure.  distribution of the wind pressure to the members is up to your engineering judgement.  
good luck.
cab30:
a very good source of information is the asce publication "wind loads and anchor bolt design for petrochemical facilities".  it has good discussions and design examples for open framed structures.
best regards
this is in response to stlblueram's comments: the asce 7-98 equation is 6-20, not 6-15. 6-20 refers you to tables 6-9 through 6-12 (it should say 6-9 through 6-13) for force coefficient cf. the only one of these tables that actually applies to a building is table 6-9, which is for monoslope roofs. so if you have an open building, and it's not a monoslope roof, there are no provisions in asce 7 to cover it!
p.s. i am a structural engineer. if stlblueram sees this, i'd appreciate a response.
spats,
i stand corrected, equation 6-20 is the more relevant equation in this case.  i should have gone to the code instead of citing references contained in my spreadsheet.
by the way, cab30 refers to his/her's structure as an "other open structure", not an "open building", as a result i would assume that what he/she is talking about is a structure w/o a roof.  if cab30's structure is w/o a roof, it is acceptable practice to treat this structure as a trussed tower and asce-7 98 gives a method to determine design wind pressure on such a structure.  
p.s.: i prefer to use eqn. 6-15 w/ cf defined per table 6-13, qz defined per section 6.5.13, and gcpi defined per table 6.7.... just personal preference.  have a nice day.