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Useful Information Building Types and Usage
Useful Information Building Types and Usage
Types Of Building and Usage
Categories of Duty of various types of building and recommended performance levels relating to crowd pressure as defined by BS5234 are given below:
Light duty (LD) |
Adjacent space only accessible to persons with high incentive to exercise care; small chance of accident occurring or of misuse |
Domestic accommodation |
| Medium duty (MD) |
Adjacent space moderately used, primarily by persons with some incentive to exercise care; some chance of accident occurring or of misuse | Office accommodation |
| Heavy duty (HD) | Adjacent space frequently used by the public and others with little incentive to exercise care; chances of accident occurring | Public circulation areas, industrial areas, schools, universities |
| Severe duty (MD) | Adjacent space intensively used, by the public and others with little incentive to care; prone to vandalism and abnormally rough use |
Major circulation areas, heavy industrial areas |
BS 5234 – Crowd pressure
“The crowd pressure test is an additional test suitable for HD and SD grade partitions. The recommended performance levels are given in Table 5”.
Table 5
Recommended performance levels Principal criteria. No collapse or dangerous damage
0.75 KN/m Medium duty
1.50 KN/m Heavy duty
3.0 KN/m Severe duty
Refer to BS 6399 part 1 ‘Code of practice for dead and imposed loads’
