Evaluation of various national greenhouse design standards for wind loading

Abstract

The greenhouse design standard for South Korea is under revision to ensure the structural safety of greenhouses in response to strong winds. In order to ensure that suitable design standards for structural safety are adopted, wind load criteria for a range of countries have been analysed. The provisions for wind load, correction factors, and wind pressure coefficients were analysed using greenhouse design standards from Korea, China, Japan, United States of America (USA), and European Union (EU) (CEN, 2001; JGHA, 2016; MAFRA, 1999; MOHURD, 2017; NGMA, 2004). Although the calculations are similar throughout these greenhouse design standards (CEN, 2001; JGHA, 2016; MAFRA, 1999; MOHURD, 2017; NGMA, 2004), different factors are used to calculate wind load. From the analysed data, a structural analysis was conducted to evaluate the structural safety of the designs for wind load. The results indicated that a relatively rigid member should be used for a greenhouse framework constructed using the greenhouse design standard from USA (NGMA, 2004) and that a relatively inexpensive greenhouse could be constructed using the greenhouse design standard from Japan (JGHA, 2016).