Tca Launches Online Tilt-Up Resource, Forms Seismic Design Task Group

The Tilt-Up Concrete Association has added a project database and search function on its Web site., which can be accessed by selecting Building with Tilt-Up

The Tilt-Up Concrete Association has added a project database and search function on its Web site., which can be accessed by selecting Building with Tilt-Up from the main menu at www.tilt-up.org. The new section allows visitors to search for project examples on the basis of end-use type, including distribution and warehouse, education, housing, manufacturing, office, religious, retail and special-use categories. Under each heading, case study project examples and photographs are posted, especially for use in proposals and sales efforts. TCA Technical Director Jim Baty notes, This section is a mere whistle-wetter for what is soon to come in the form of the first industry-wide searchable product database due out later this year.

Separately, TCA has organized a seismic design task group in response to concerns regarding the performance of tilt-up structures in high seismic regions, largely due to incomplete information on design and performance characteristics. The group is charged with identifying the latest tilt-up design procedures and standards for seismic performance and developing modifications to current building code provisions based on those practices and standards.

The group has begun to develop models for current design practice and solutions for dynamic modeling through the National Earthquake Hazard Reduction Program and proposed detailing through the American Concrete Institute. Primary to the group’s focus are seismic loads applied to panels, connection details, panel design, concrete code revisions, classification of flexible diaphragms, and recognition of the increasing number of tilt-up buildings whose complex fa¡ade perimeters account for a reduced flexible diaphragm characteristic by bracing the frame.