asce 7-02 gust effect factor
 

asce 7-02 gust effect factor
what is the highest value you have calculated and used for the gust effect factor, gf? i am working on some tall vessels, which require me to use section 6.5.8.2 to calculate the factor. they are fixed at the base and have a guide to brace the vessel laterally at approximately half way up the vessel. i can see that the damping ratio can affect the calculation significantly and i have been tyring to be conservative, but i don't want to go overboard. is a value of gf = 1.4 unreasonable or have others used similar values for design?

i would use 1.4 only for small structures (small signs, etc). for a large vessel, i would use somewhat less than 1.4, but i am not 100% clear on the interpretation of asce 7-02.
sme75:
i just looked up some recent projects and one was a 195' self-supported stack and the gf used on that was 1.35.
your value of 1.4 does not seem unreasonable.