Industry Axis

Todd Brewood has been elected Vice President of the Kansas City Chapter of SEAKM. The appointment is for the 2019-2020 year. The role of the VP is primarily to provide support to the chapter President and to work with the other committee members in organizing the monthly chapter meetings. Todd hopes to help encourage SEAKM membership growth, and to find useful and interesting topics to share and discuss at the monthly meeting.  Needham DBS heavily supports participation in industry organizations and appreciates Todd's committment to further the profession of Structural Engineering.

Todd started his term by attending SEAKM’s Annual Meeting in Wichita, KS on Thursday, April 25, 2019.  The meeting was held at the Wichita Advanced Learning Library.  Presentations included the Oklahoma State Capitol masonry restoration, steel cracking during galvanization, engineering software packages concerns and wrapped up with partially-composite tilt-up panels by Needham DBS' Jason Blankenship.

Jeff Needham will present "Composite Tilt-Up Panels - The Future of Tilt-Up Walls" to CPG & SEAKM members..  The meeting will begin at 4pm with an opportunity for networking followed by the presentation from 4:30 pm to 5:30 pm.  CPG is providing drinks and appetizers to enjoy.

Presentation Summary:
The continued adoption of energy codes is pushing tilt-up designers to use more edge to edge  insulated panels. Using the two wythes of these panels working together in composite action is a logical solution for engineers to provide a strong and very efficient insulated panel. The use of composite design has been limited due to thermal bow concerns, lack of good design methods, and limited connector types.
This presentation will explore the current state-of-the-art in composite tilt-up panel construction and explain developments in design methods for tilt-up composite panels. The differences between solid panel design and two-wythe composite design will be illustrated and the limitations of current composite design methods will be shown. The future of composite panels in tilt-up construction will conclude the talk.