How to Calculate Floor Load

Floor loading is a measure of the pressure on the floor of a truck, aircraft, cargo container or other similar enclosure. All floors have structural design limits that restrict the weight of cargo you can place on them. Calculating floor load is therefore essential in averting the catastrophic failure that can occur when a floor buckles due to overloading. Two common units for measuring floor loading are pounds per square inch, or psi, and pounds per square foot, or psf.

Things You'll Need

• Weight of all cargo, in pounds
• Area of the floor, in square inches or square feet

Instructions

1. Add up all cargo weights to obtain total weight.

2. Divide the total weight by the floor area in square inches to obtain the floor load in psi. For example, 500 pounds divided by 250 square inches is 2 psi.

3. Convert psi to psf, if desired, by multiplying psi by 144. For example, 2 psi times 144 yields 288 psf.

References

• TPub: TM 55-1500-342-23 ARMY AVIATION ENGINEERING MANUAL WEIGHT AND BALANCE