Student:	Perin ÖZGEN
Supervisor:	Prof. Dr. Ayşe DALOĞLU
Department:	Civil Engineering
Institution:	Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences
University:	Karadeniz Technical University, Turkey

Title of the Thesis:	Determination of Optimum Snow Loads of Roofs in Turkey
Level:	M.Sc.
Acceptance Date:	21/9/2007
Number of Pages:	217
Registration Number:	i1863

Summary:

In Turkey, it has been frequently met with roof damages and collapses due to snow

loads. Most important reason of this is that the design snow loads have not being

determined correctly. Optimum design roof snow load is determined by multiplying

ground snow load with conversion coefficients that can be obtained according to the

factors effect the accumulation of the snow on the roof.

The aim of this study is to constitute a ground snow load map for Turkey, to compare

the conversion coefficients from American ANSI/ASCE 7-98 with those from Turkish

codes, and to suggest some revisions of Turkish codes if necessary.

In this study, 50-year mean recurrence interval (MRI) ground snow loads for 100

DMI (State Meteorological Service) stations located in Turkey, were determined with

snow data collected from the stations using the latest developed statistical analysis

methods. Ground snow load map of Turkey was constituted using GIS (Geographically

Information System) techniques in order to obtain a representation of the variation of the

ground snow load in the region using 50-year snow loads determined for each station. Roof

snow loads for gable roofs types were derived using the conversion coefficients from

ANSI/ASCE 7-05, TS 498 and TS 7046.

According to the ground snow load map constituted and the results obtained in the

study, it can be concluded that ground snow loads suggested by TS_498 for Turkey, are

mostly unsafe, and TS_7046 that suggest statistical analysis only to evaluate ground snow

loads is not economic for each case.

Key Words: Ground Snow Load, Roof Snow Load, Statistical Analysis, GIS, TS 498,

TS 7046, ANSI/ASCE 7-05