Wind is the only climatic load acting on every type of structure in every country in the world, unlike snow. The wind speed depends on the geographic location of the building. Currently, this is one of the main reasons for the necessity of regional division (wind zone) and consideration of the altitude stipulated within the official standards; the variation of the dynamic pressures according to the height above the ground for a "normal" site deprived of masking effect should be taken into account as well.
Loading panes of insulating glass due to climatic effects are clearly regulated in DIN 18008. In the case of the corresponding pane geometry, this load type can also govern for the ultimate limit state design. The FE design on the entire structure with the space between panes represented as the volume of a gas provides exact results for the analysis. However, a plausibility check is also becoming increasingly important. This article shows various options for performing these checks.
According to DIN EN 1990/NA:2010‑12 – NDP to A.1.2.1(1) Comment 2, it is necessary to apply only one of the two climatic actions in the combination expressions for actions according to 6.4.3 and 6.5.3 in the case of places located up to +1,000 m above mean sea level if snow and wind are available as collateral actions, in addition to non‑climatic leading action.
For the superposition or combination of loads, the German standard DIN 18008 refers to DIN 1055‑100. This also applies for the individual parameters of climatic loads to be transferred. In this case, it is possible to summarize the temperature change and meteorological pressure change in a single load and to define the local altitude change as a permanent load.
A new feature allows you to assign climatic loads to load cases when designing panes of insulating glass. Climatic loads are included in three categories here: temperature difference, atmospheric pressure difference, and altitude difference.