Wind and Seismic Load Analysis Services to ASCE 7-16

Loading is the assumption everything else rests on, and it is the assumption most likely to be challenged at authority review. Wrong exposure category, wrong importance factor, wrong site seismic parameters, and every downstream calculation is wrong with it. RIH Engineering provides outsourced wind and seismic load analysis as a dedicated backend team, with the derivation documented line by line so a reviewer can follow it.

What you get

• Wind load analysis to ASCE 7-16, Eurocode 1 or the governing code, with full derivation shown
• Seismic load calculation with site parameters, response modification factors and importance factors stated and justified
• Wind load on high rise buildings including along-wind, across-wind and torsional cases
• Wind load on canopies, parapets, cladding and components, which is where most submissions get queried
• Load combinations generated to the governing code, tabulated and cross-checked
• Exposure category, topographic factor and directionality assessed against the actual site, not assumed
• Structural wind load calculation reports formatted for authority submission
• Wind tunnel scope definition where the structure falls outside code applicability limits

What we handle for you

Load derivation is deceptively expensive. It is only a few pages of output, but getting those pages defensible means working through exposure, topography, enclosure classification, internal pressure, directionality and combinations, and documenting each decision. Rushed, it is the first thing a reviewer picks apart.

We do the derivation properly and write it up so it survives review. You send the site location, building geometry, occupancy and the governing code. We return the loading report with every factor derived and referenced, and the load combinations tabulated ready to drop into your analysis model.

The cost of doing this in-house

Loading gets compressed because it sits at the start of the programme, when the fee feels large and the deadline feels distant. Then the project runs late and loading gets two days instead of five. The consequence arrives months later at submission, when the authority queries the exposure category and the entire structural design has to be rerun against corrected loads.

That rerun is the expensive event. Not the loading hours, the rework of every member design that depended on them, plus the programme slip, plus the conversation with your client about why the submission bounced. Loading is cheap to get right and extremely expensive to get wrong, and the cost lands late enough that nobody connects it back to the two days that were saved.

Why RIH Engineering is safe to try

Send us one building. We deliver the wind and seismic loading report with every factor derived, referenced to clause, and the combinations tabulated. You check the derivation yourself, because we show it rather than summarise it. If you disagree with an assumption, we change it and reissue.

This is the service where our UAE code position matters most. Named engineers under our dedicated resource model learn which code basis applies to your projects and stop needing to ask. Your reviewing engineer retains approval authority throughout.

Our process

1. You send the site location, building geometry, height, occupancy category and the governing code basis
2. We establish and confirm the loading basis with you: exposure category, topographic conditions, enclosure classification, site seismic parameters and importance factor
3. Wind loading derived: velocity pressure, gust effect factor, pressure coefficients for main wind force resisting system and for components and cladding
4. Seismic loading derived: site class, spectral accelerations, response modification factor, base shear and vertical distribution
5. Load combinations generated to the governing code, both strength and serviceability, and tabulated
6. Derivation cross-checked independently against the code clauses, with every factor referenced
7. Loading report compiled, written so an authority reviewer or third-party checker can follow each step
8. Report issued with the combinations in a format ready to import into your analysis model

Tools and standards

We derive loading to ASCE 7-16 and ASCE 7-10, IBC, Eurocode 1 (BS EN 1991) and Eurocode 8, IS 875 and IS 1893, and apply it in STAAD.Pro and ETABS.

For UAE projects this is the page that matters. The Dubai Building Code aligns loading requirements, wind and seismic, with ASCE 7-16, and applies loading parameters optimised specifically for Dubai rather than generic ASCE values. It also covers robustness against disproportionate collapse to ASCE 7-16. The Dubai Building Code incorporates and replaces the separate building design regulations previously published by Dubai Municipality, DDA, Trakhees and DSOA, so a single basis now governs across those authorities. Abu Dhabi projects follow ADIBC, which is based on the 2009 International Codes, so the two emirates run on different code vintages. We confirm which basis applies, in writing, before any derivation starts.

Client-preferred tools: Our team can be trained to use the tool preferred by the client. If your workflow depends on a specific platform, template or drafting standard, we adapt to it rather than force you into ours.

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