Larry Griffis

April 16: Designing Buildings for Wind Load By ASCE 7-05

On the surface, designing buildings for wind load according to ASCE 7-05 is a complex process. A complete evaluation of the basic wind pressure equation in ASCE 7-05 for flexible buildings (buildings with the fundamental frequency n1 < 1 hertz) requires consideration of up to 48 different parameters. If a building is rigid (n1 ≥ 1 hertz) the Gust Effect Factor may be taken equal to 0.85 and the number of parameters to consider reduces by more than half, which is still a significant number.

In practice, the process can be greatly simplified. This seminar will explain how to design buildings for wind loads – the easy way. The seminar will address the following topics:

  • Understanding the wind pressure equation
  • Wind design flow charts
  • The role of building frequency and damping
  • Simplifying the Gust Effect Factor
  • Parameters that most influence wind pressure
  • Dealing with non-typical building shapes
  • Direct determination of design wind pressures from tables
  • Controlling building torsion from wind and seismic loading

This course will award 1.5 hours of continuing education.

The times will be 10:00 Pacific, 11:00 Mountain, 12:00 Central, and 1:00 Eastern

Lawrence (Larry) Griffis P.E. Bio

Larry Griffis is President of the Structures Division and Senior Principal with Walter P. Moore and Associates Inc., a national structural/civil engineering firm headquartered in Houston, Texas. Mr. Griffis is responsible for overseeing the structural, diagnostic/forensic and parking services for nine offices around the country. He is a registered professional engineer in numerous states including Texas, Florida and California.

Mr. Griffis is very active in professional activities and is a frequent speaker at national and regional conferences. He has served as a member of the specification committees for both AISC and ACI. He is a member of the ASCE 7 Committee responsible for the ASCE/SEI 7 load standard and is a member and past Chairman of the Task Committee on Wind Loads for ASCE 7. He is past President and serves as a member of the board of directors for the Applied Technology Conference (ATC). He currently is a member and past Chairman of the ASCE Committee on Steel Buildings and is a member of the Code of Standard Practice Committee for AISC.

Mr. Griffis received the TR Higgins Award from AISC as well as the Lifetime Achievement Award. He was recently named a Fellow with the American Concrete Institute. In 2002 he was named a distinguished alumnus in Architectural and Civil Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. He has received the Bill Schoeller Award from the Structural Engineers Association of Texas (SEAoT) and in 2003 was inducted into The National Academy of Engineering. He has twice been recognized by Engineering News Record Magazine as a Newsmaker in the field of structural engineering.




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