Live Loads - Structural Design of Beams

Live Loads

Live loads of a structure are also sometimes called the occupant loads.  These are the loads that the structure must support that are based on the intended use.  For example, the expected live load for a restaurant is higher than the expected live load of a residential structure because the occupant load is expected to be higher.

Occupant live loads are determined by ASCE7 Table 4-1 - Minimum Uniformly Distributed Live Loads and Minimum Concentrated Live Loads.