Live loads in office buildings: lifetime maximum load

This is the second of two papers that describe a study on probabilistic live loads in office buildings surveyed in Kanpur, India. The paper presents a probabilistic live load model and its application to sustained load and extraordinary load. Parameters for sustained load are established from actual survey data. Probability distribution of the sustained load is represented by log-normal and gamma distributions. Predicted extraordinary loads based on the present survey are calculated with parameters selected from the work done in Australia (Choi ECC. Struct. Engr. 67 (1989) 421–437; Proc. Instn. Civil Engrs Structs. Bldgs. 94 (1992) 307–314). A lifetime maximum load, comprising a sustained load process and an extraordinary load event, has been evaluated and compared with previous predicted values and those given in codes of practice.