BEST PRACTICE

Subject Wind loads Date 13 Nov 2019 Page 1/10 Sap nr. 6000180789
Doc. nr. 050200004 Region Europe Rev. 00

Wind loads

This best practice provides a guideline on how to account for wind loads acting on structures.
For wind during crane operations refer to the Best Practice 030201003.

Conditions / Description of situation

This general approach is valid unless regional wind data are available, or more conservative wind values
from client/ national codes apply.

Content
The wind actions are determined by 2 basic parameters, namely:
- Wind in relation to duration
- Wind in relation to height

This best practice is based on European standards, either crane standards (EN13000, EN13001) or building
standards (EN1991-1-4, EN1991-1-6). It gives an overview of the advised calculation method for operational
and survival condition.

For information 13 Nov. DSki LOor LOor

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only 2019 903173 900943 900943
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Rev. Description Date Author
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Without authorized signature(s) this document is uncontrolled, not binding and for indicative purposes only

NOTE
THIS BEST PRACTICE GUIDELINE IS PREPARED BASED ON THE BEST KNOWLEDGE AT THE TIME OF
WRITING AND SUBJECTED TO NEW INSIGHTS. FOR ALTERATIONS CONTACT THE OWNER.

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 BEST PRACTICE
Subject Wind loads Date 13 Nov 2019 Page 2/10 Sap nr. 6000180789
Doc. nr. 050200004 Region Europe Rev. 00

1.1 Wind in relation to duration

Wind speed is typically given in the following form:

- Mean wind speed (10 minutes /hourly/ other), at a reference elevation of 10m.

- Peak wind speed, mostly 3 second gust, in relation to a specific elevation.

In Mammoet we are interested in 3-s gust values for performing strength and stability checks of structures.

The commonly used Beaufort Scale is an empirical measure that relates wind speed to observed conditions
at sea or land. The presented values are mean speeds, usually averaged over 10 minutes, and measured at
10 m above ground. It is preferred not to use the Beaufort scale numbers in calculation documents, but to
use unambiguous wind speed values in m/s, km/h or mph.

Beaufort Description m/s km/h mph knot

0 Calm <0.3 <1 0-1 0-1
1 Light Air 0.3-1.5 1-5 1-3 1-3
2 Light Breeze 1.5-3.3 6-11 4-7 4-6
3 Gentle Breeze 3.3-5.5 12-19 8-12 7-10
4 Moderate Breeze 5.5-8.0 20-28 13-18 11-16
5 Fresh Breeze 8.0-10.8 29-38 19-24 17-21
6 Strong Breeze 10.8-13.9 39-49 25-31 22-27
7 Near Gale 13.9-17.2 50-61 32-38 28-33
8 Gale 17.2-20.7 62-74 39-46 34-40
9 Severe Gale 20.7-24.5 75-88 47-54 41-47
10 Storm 24.5-28.4 89-102 55-63 48-55
11 Violent Storm 28.4-32.6 103-117 64-72 56-63
12 Hurricane >32.6 >118 73-83 64-71

1.1.1 Conversions between common units of speed

m/s km/h mph knot

1 m/s 1 3.6 2.237 1.944
1 km/h 0.245 1 0.621 0.540
1 mph 0.447 1.609 1 0.869
1 knot 0.514 1.852 1.151 1

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Subject Wind loads Date 13 Nov 2019 Page 3/10 Sap nr. 6000180789
Doc. nr. 050200004 Region Europe Rev. 00

1.1.2 Conversion from mean to gust

When wind data are provided in mean values and need to be converted to gust values and vice versa, the
Durst curve (logarithmic scale) can be used for the conversion. The curve shows the ratio of any duration to
the hourly mean speed.

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Subject Wind loads Date 13 Nov 2019 Page 4/10 Sap nr. 6000180789
Doc. nr. 050200004 Region Europe Rev. 00

1.2 Conversion between wind speed, pressure and force

Wind speed v wind [m/s]

Wind pressure
qwind  0.5    vwind
2
[N/m]

where air density ρ = 1.25 kg/m3 for temperatures over 10ºC.

Generally hot wind is ‘lighter’ and cold wind is ‘heavier’.

Wind force
Fwind  qwind  cw  A [N]

where cw (or ca) is a drag/ aerodynamic coefficient which accounts for the shape of the windward surface.
Below is a generic table for the coefficient values; more elaborate calculation methods are also available,
refer to spreadsheet 050200004.xls.

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Subject Wind loads Date 13 Nov 2019 Page 5/10 Sap nr. 6000180789
Doc. nr. 050200004 Region Europe Rev. 00

1.3 In-service wind

In-service wind is defined as a safety threshold, under which operations are allowed. Therefore it refers to a
relatively short weather window, which makes it possible to get reliable meteorological predictions for the site
location. For in-service wind values, tables from ‘EN 13000 Cranes - Mobile cranes’ are used.
Alternatively, the extensive method from EN 13001-2 or EN 1991-1-4 can be used.

mean speed

3-s gust speed

According to above table, for in-service mean wind speed of 10.1 m/s, the 3-s gust speed at 10m is
v(10) = 14.1 m/s, and the wind pressure q(10) = 0.5·1.25·14.12 = 125 N/m2.

With this method one can estimate wind loads in structures such as Gantry systems, where the windspeed at
the maximum elevation is applied over the entire height of the structure (conservative).

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Subject Wind loads Date 13 Nov 2019 Page 6/10 Sap nr. 6000180789
Doc. nr. 050200004 Region Europe Rev. 00

1.4 Out-of-service wind

Out-of-service wind is defined the wind condition when operations are not allowed, and the design goal is
that the structure survives the storm (possibly with anchoring, boom down etc). According to European
standards the out-of-service wind has recurrence interval (return period) of once in 50 years.

For out-of-service wind values, the methodology from EN 13001-2 section 4.2.4.2 can be used.
Specifically, the map of Europe is divided into 5 regions A to E (see next page), with certain reference storm
wind speeds. These are measured at 10m above flat open country, averaged over a period of 10minutes.
Below the wind speed and wind pressure are calculated, for an elevation of 100m and the 50-year storm.

Region A/B C D E

vref [m/s] 24 28 32 36

v(100) [m/s] 43.5 50.8 58.0 65.3

q(100) [N/m2] 1180 1610 2100 2660

For smaller return periods the following reduction factors are applied on the wind speed. Guidance on the
return period can be found in EN 1991-1-6 Table 3.1, see chapter 1.5 of this report

Return period [years] 5 10 25 50

Reduction factor frec 0.8155 0.8733 0.9463 1

For different elevation than 100m one can refer to formula (15) from EN13001-2 below.

v ( z )  f rec [( z / 10 ) 0.14  0 .4 ]  v ref

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1.5 Extensive method: EN 1991-1-4 and EN 1991-1-6

‘EN 1991-1-4 – Wind actions’ prescribes a more elaborate method for the determination of wind actions, also
accounting for terrain conditions. EN 1991-1-4 can be used for both in-service and out-of-service wind.

In ‘EN-1991-1-6 – Actions during execution’ recommended values of the return period are given depending
on the execution duration, see table below. For wind actions with a return period smaller than 50 years, the
basic wind speed is multiplied with a probability factor according to EN 1991-1-4.

For the extensive method reference is made to Chapter 4 of EN 1991-1-4 and to the spreadsheet
050200004.xls, which includes calculation of probability factor, basic wind speed, roughness factor, mean
wind speed, turbulence intensity and peak wind speed.

Status For information only

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Doc. nr. 050200004 Region Europe Rev. 00

Appendix A Example calculation

Below is a demonstration of the wind force calculation for a MSG mast section, according to EN 13001-2.

Wind X direction

Solidity ratio
Aj 7 .1
   0 .48 (Figure A.2)
Ac 14 .65

1690
a/d   0 .66
2570

Shielding factor
  0 .20 (Figure A.9)

Characteristic area
1   nm 1  0 .2 2
A  A1   7 .1  8 . 5
1  1  0 .2

Aerodynamic length
l a  a r  l 0  1  5700  5700 mm (Table A.1)

Aerodynamic slenderness ratio

l 5700
 a   2 .22
d 2570

  0 .91 (Figure A.1)

c 0  2 .00 (Figure A.6)

Aerodynamic coefficient
c a  c 0   2  0 .91  1 .82

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Subject Wind loads Date 13 Nov 2019 Page 10/10 Sap nr. 6000180789
Doc. nr. 050200004 Region Europe Rev. 00

For a design wind of 21 m/s (276 N/m2), wind force is calculated as follows.

Wind force in X
F  q  c  A  276  1 .82  8 .5  4 .3kN

With the same approach one can calculate the wind force in longitudinal direction

Wind force in Y
F  q  c  A  276  1 .80  8 .0  4 .0 kN

Distributed force is calculated by dividing above values with the length of 5.7m.

MSG mast Wind X @ 21m/s Wind Y @ 21m/s

Wind force 4.3 kN 4.0
Distributed force 0.75 kN/m 0.70 kN/m
Distributed force per chord 0.19 kN/m 0.17 kN/m

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