LOAD COMBINATION IN CODES

This paper presents a study of load combination especially the simplif ied method with reduced combination values which is used in many codes . The study is performed through calculation of combination values acc ording to probabilistic principles. A stationary uncorrelated random s equence according to the Ferry Borges-Castanheta load process model is used for each one of the two individual loads which are combined. The influence of different factors are studied such as type of probabilit y distribution of the load, its coefficient of variation, the ratio be tween the magnitudes of the two loads, the probability of load occurre nce and the average number of load occurrencies during a chosen refere nce time. The results of the calculations indicate that the type of pr obability distribution and its coefficient of variation have fairly gr eat influence. Changes of the probability of occurrence of the magnitu de of 5 to 10 times or more may have a considerable influence. The inf luence of the number of load occurrencies is noticeable but generally not very important.