Snow loads on multi‐span roofs

Snow loads have an important influence, particularly on the design of lightweight steel structures. For multi‐span roofs, local drift surcharges and global drift losses play a central role. During the review of the snow load distribution for multi‐span roof according to prEN 1991‐1‐3:2023, 7.5.4, attention was only given to minor changes of the shape coefficients. The inconsistency of shape coefficients and more importantly their limitations, trends and the resulting snow loads seem to have been neglected. Partly, problems have been inherited from the regulation in the first generation of the Eurocode EN 1991‐1‐3:2010, 5.3.4. The currently reviewed draft prEN 1991‐1‐3:2023 is insufficiently revised. In this paper, the background for the snow load distribution on multi‐span roofs is given, the impact and consequences of the regulation are shown and possible improvements proposed.