Comparison of the Canadian standard and other standards for wind loading on self-supporting telecommunication towers

Abstract

Designing telecommunication towers to withstand wind loads requires specific considerations, which has led the international civil engineering community to develop specific standards for these structures. The recent internationalization of the construction business has made it imperative for engineers to acquire knowledge and interpretation of codes from different countries. In light of the 2018 update of Canadian Standard CSA-S37-18 (CSA), evaluating its differences against other international standards for telecommunication towers has become important. This paper presents a comparison of the wind loading specifications for self-supporting telecommunication towers according to CSA; Australian Standard; Eurocode EN-1993-1; and US Standard TIA-222-G. The different standards have also been evaluated with respect to the values of the axial forces and the elements ratio for two self-supporting telecommunication towers. The parameters related to the wind profiles and the gust effect factor presented the highest difference between the standards.