Sustainable structural design and construction through updated design loads

The purpose of the project is to evaluate how sustainability can be increased in design and construction by updating the current levels of imposed loads and the related design models widely used in today’s structural design of buildings.

Imposed loads on buildings are those arising from occupancy, including normal use by e.g. inhabitants and furniture, and are decisive for design of the load bearing system.

The current values of imposed loads are based on assumptions along with surveys performed more than 40-years ago that may not still be valid for today’s occupancy.

There are also inconsistencies in the existing load models implying an overcapacity in our structures related to imposed loads. The work in the project will be divided into three parts. The first part will be related to a survey of imposed loads using modern technology and previously used methods.

The second part is related to evaluation of models for consideration of spatial and time variation, along with development of a calculation tool. The third part is a review of possible methods for monitoring imposed loads.

The main benefit of this project for society is that building materials and resources may be used more efficiently with better load models and that our building codes reflect the actual load situations in buildings. More logical load calculation models may also benefit practicing consultants. The project will be carried out at Lund University, in cooperation with Boverket.