5/22/2017 What is meant by Solidity ratio in Structural Engineering?

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What is meant by Solidity ratio in Structural Engineering?

How to find solidity ratio for Parabolic dish reflector?

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3 Answers

Gopalkrishna Vishwanath, Civil and structural engineering, now retired after 37

years of service
Answered Aug 2, 2016
It is a term used in computing wind loads on a structure.

Refer IS 875 Part three

Here is a quick summary to explain to the layman.

Wind pressures on a structure or a building,that tend to cause overturning, are computed based on the wind
speed in the area. Of course it varies but the maximum recorded over several years is used and a map of the
country is available with the areas shaded in different colours for different wind speeds.

Using these, the wind pressure is arrived at based on procedures given in the IS 875 code of practice. There
are a number of parameters to be considered.

The total lateral wind load on a building or a structure is arrived at by a detailed procedure and it also
depends on the area of the face of the building that is exposed to the wind.

Two areas are significant. One is the gross area, which is the width of the building /structure multiplied by the
height of the building. The second is the actual area of the members in structure that are exposed to the wind
and resist it. In the case of building without any window openings the gross area is more. But in a steel
transmission tower, the wind blows right through the open spaces between the criss crossing members. So the
total wind load is less compared to a building wall of the same height and width.

The solidity ratio measures how much this openness is and it influences the net wind load on the
structure to be considered for analysis and design.

The full technical details are given in IS 875 part 3

See this document also

http://nptel.ac.in/courses/10510...

https://www.quora.com/What-is-meant-by-Solidity-ratio-in-Structural-Engineering 1/3
5/22/2017 What is meant by Solidity ratio in Structural Engineering? - Quora

It gives some sample calculations for wind loads on towers based on the code and is compiled by two IIT
professors.

I am unable to advise you how to calculate it for the specific parabolic dish reflector that you have
mentioned. I have been away from the profession for several years now and am also not having any access to
my text books, codes, notes etc which I have left behind at home in Bangalore. I am in USA now, and will
return on Aug 10 to Bangalore.

Hope this helps.

GV
1.7k Views 12 Upvotes Answer requested by MaNoJ KuMaR, Chaitanya Giridhar, and 1 more

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Rahil Dalal, B.Tech Civil Engineering from SVNIT,Surat

Answered Aug 5, 2016

When wind passes through a structure, it exerts force on it. Now, if there are a lot of holes in the structure,
wind will pass through unobstructed from those holes and exert force only on that part of structure that
blocks it i.e. the surface area of the exposed surface perpendicular to the direction of wind. so, the ratio of
the actual exposed area of the surface to the total area is the solidity ratio.

You can also understand it this way:

Consider a simple triangular truss. Now, the actual area of steel is the surface area of the 3 members of truss
i.e. either angle section or I-section or strips. Let us for the sake of this question assume 3 strips of length 1
meter each and width 10 mm each. Ignore the thickness.

Now, the total area of triangle = ((root 3)/4)*1*1 m2 = 0.433 m2.

And the actual area blocked by the steel is: 1*0.01*3 m2 = 0.03 m2. 1 is the length, 0.01 is the width and 3
because 3 strips make up the triangel.

so, the solidity ratio will be = 0.03/0.433 = 0.07 = 0.1(approximately).

494 Views 1 Upvote Answer requested by MaNoJ KuMaR

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5/22/2017 What is meant by Solidity ratio in Structural Engineering? - Quora

Shahrukh Hussain, B.Tech Civil Engineering, Mizoram University (2019)

Answered Mar 21

Solidity ratio is defined as the ratio of effective area (projected area of allthe individual elements) of a frame
normal to the wind direction divided by thearea enclosed by the boundary of the frame normal to the wind
direction.

Force coefficient for lattice towers of square or equilateral triangle sectionwith flat sided members for wind
blowing against any face shall be as given inTable 30 of IS:875(Part-3)-1987.

Force coefficients for lattice towers of square section with circularmembers and equilateral triangle section
with circular members are as given intables 31 and 32 of IS: 875(Part-3)-1987 respectively.Table 2 of
IS:875(Part-3)-1987 gives the factors to obtain design windspeed variation with height in different terrains
for different classes of structuressuch as class A, class B, class C.The wind load acting on a tower can be
computed as

F= CdtAePzk2.

For circular sections the force coefficient depends upon the way in whichthe wind flows around it and is
dependent upon the velocity and kinematicviscosity of the wind and diameter of the section.The force
coefficient is usuallyquoted against a non-dimensional parameter, called the Reynolds number, whichtakes
account of the velocity and viscosity of the medium and the memberdiameter.

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