Loadburden
Loadburden is a term occasionally used in engineering discourse to denote the total effective load carried by a component, structure, or system. It is not a universally defined concept in major standards, and its precise meaning can vary by field or practitioner. In general, loadburden combines multiple categories of forces, including permanent or dead loads, variable or live loads, and dynamic or environmental loads, into a single representative value used for preliminary design or assessment.
Applications of loadburden span structural engineering, geotechnical engineering, and mechanical design. In structural contexts, the term
Calculation commonly follows a compositional approach: loadburden ≈ dead load + live load + environmental or dynamic loads, often
Limitations: because loadburden is not standardized, definitions vary and can collide with established terms such as
See also: load, dead load, live load, dynamic load, load factor, safety factor.