INSTRUCTOR: Dr. Marc L. Levitan, Ph.D., A.M.ASCE

This course will begin with a brief overview of tornadoes, their climatology, and impacts. It will then explore recent developments for improved tornado hazard characterization, design methods, and codes and standards for buildings and structures to resist these hazards. Then course will continue with its main focus ‐ review and application of the new Chapter 32 provisions on Tornado Loads in the ASCE 7‐22 Standard. Participants will learn about the many and significant differences between wind loads and tornado loads, including design speeds, vertical velocity profiles, directionality factor, gust effect factor, enclosure classification, internal and external pressure coefficients, debris impact protection, velocity pressure and design pressure equations, load combinations, and more.

This course work through examples for determination of tornado load factors, compute wind loads on an example building, then compute tornado loads for the same building, and finally determine the controlling load combinations considering both wind and tornado loads. The course will wrap up with a section on design requirements for tornado shelters. This will include discussion of key provisions of ICC 500‐2020 (the ICC/NSSA Standard for Design and Construction of Storm Shelters), along with code requirements for tornado shelters in the International Building Code, International Existing Building Code, and International Residential Code.

This course is one of ASCE's new Guided Online Courses that are highly interactive, instructor-led programs in which learners move through a 5-week learning experience with their peers.  The content includes video lectures, interactive exercises, case studies, and weekly discussion topics to help master the course material. Unlimited 24/7 accessibility to weekly modules.

View the course outline and learn more about how these courses work