Construction Engineering Commons^™

Students Helping Students, Pj Bonney, Tyler Cahoon, Tyson Dippold, Paul Hart, Jj Potvin, Jim Strande, Billy Walker, Keith West

2013 Student Research Day Projects

Petroleum Engineering student, Calvin Goza, was injured last May and now requires the use of a wheelchair. In order to return to Montana Tech this Spring semester, his Butte, Montana home required modifications to become wheelchair accessible.

Restoring The Richard's Cabin - Nevada City Living History Museum, Paul Hart

2013 Student Research Day Projects

Highlands College Historic Preservation student, Paul Hart, enjoyed an internship in which he researched and accurately reconstructed parts of the Richard's Cabin at the Nevada City Living History Museum.

Assisting A Local Animal Shelter, J. J. Potvin, Jim Strande

2013 Student Research Day Projects

Construction Technology students, JJ Potvin and Jim Strande assisted Pintler Pets, Montana's Anaconda-Deer Lodge Animal Shelter, with its recent major influx of feral cats by constructing a "lean to" addition to the building.

Precast/Prestressed Concrete Truss-Girder For Roof Applications, Peter S. Samir

Construction Systems -- Dissertations & Theses

Steel trusses are the most popular system for supporting long span roofs in commercial buildings, such as warehouses and aircraft hangars. There are several advantages of steel trusses, such as lightweight, ease of handling and erection, and geometric flexibility. However, they have some drawbacks, such as high material and maintenance cost, and low fire resistance. In this paper, a precast concrete truss is proposed as an alternative to steel trusses for spans up to 160 ft. without intermediate supports. The proposed design is easy to produce and has lower construction and maintenance costs than steel trusses. The proposed design is ...

Precast Concrete Insulated Wall Panel Corbels Without Thermal Bridging, Mohamed Elkady

Construction Systems -- Dissertations & Theses

The common practice in corbel design is to block out the insulation in order to provide a solid concrete area at the corbel location. This connection practice results in thermal bridging, which significantly reduces the energy performance of the panel. For example, the PCI Design Handbook indicates that the reduction in thermal resistance caused by a solid part with an area equal to 9% of the total panel surface area is as high as 42%. This paper presents a discussion of a new concept for corbel design of insulated wall panels with the thermal break totally preserved. Two different designs ...

Analyzing The Factors That Lead To Housing And Construction Cost Escalation: A Case Study Focused On Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Abdulaziz Saleh Alfouzan

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Riyadh city suffers from high housing and construction costs, which have increased by more than 200% over the last 7 years. This problem led to a significant interest from the government and the citizens of the city in understanding the causes of housing and construction cost escalation and the best strategies to address this problem in the short and long-terms, in order to find solutions for affordable housing.

In response to the absence of research regarding this problem, the researcher has decided to conduct a scientific survey about the factors that might have led to this problem in Riyadh. While ...

Developing A Standard Approach To The Value Engineering Process For The Civil Engineering Industry: A Theoretical, Case Study And Industry Perspective., Charles Anthony Mitchell

Conference papers

The original Value Engineering process developed in North America in the late 1940‟s, was primarily based on functional analysis. However; the North American Value Engineering process was not adopted in Europe. Instead various mixed methods were assembled under the umbrella term of Value Management. Nowadays there is much debate about what Value Engineering is and how is it defined? This question arises in part due to there being no standard approach in Europe as a whole in undertaking ValueManagement or Value Engineering exercises.With this in mind, Masters level research was undertaken from three perspectives (theory, case study and ...

Quantum Man, Julian Voss-Andreae

The STEAM Journal

According to quantum physics, the world is fundamentally quite different than it seems. Drawing inspiration from the underlying nature of reality, former quantum physicist Julian Voss-Andreae created an image of a walking human as a quantum object. Made up of parallel sheets of steel, the sculpture is a metaphor for the counter-intuitive world of quantum physics. Symbolizing the dual nature of matter with the appearance of classical reality on the surface and cloudy quantum behavior underneath, the sculpture seems to consist of solid steel when seen from the front, but dissolves into almost nothing when seen from the side.

Field Study Of Hygrothermal Performance Of Cross‐Laminated Timber Wall Assemblies With Built‐In Moisture, Victoria Ruth Mcclung

Theses and dissertations

Cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels have potential market in North America for building mid-rise structures due to their good structural and seismic performance, lightweight, and prefabricated nature. However, to ensure long-term durability, the hygrothermal performance of CLT wall assemblies needs to be evaluated in terms of drying and wetting potential before their widespread adoption in North America. A test wall was constructed with initially wetted CLT panels, and monitored over a year. The drying behaviour of the panels was analysed, and results were compared to hygrothermal simulations. It was found from the field data that no tested wall assemblies in the ...

Bim Collaboration In Student Architectural Technologist Learning, Malachy Mathews

Articles

This paper is the result of a qualitative case study which investigated the influence of building information modelling (BIM) collaboration on the learning of student architectural technologists based around a studio group project. The purpose of the paper is to disseminate knowledge gained into a new learning environment facilitated by the collaborative properties of a BIM application. A qualitative case study approach has been used to undertake the examination of the learners’ experiences during the project. This approach allowed the author to map the complex interaction between the participants during the stages of the collaborative design project. The paper provides ...

Can We Teach Lean Construction Methods In Schools Of Architecture, Gary Graham

Fall 2012 Faculty Showcase

Traditionally, schools of architecture are not great laboratories to explore the collaborative processes and teamwork that are essential to integrated design and delivery practices as exemplified by Lean Construction. The pre-eminence of the “hero-architect” in the design studio is in direct conflict with methods that can reduce risk and improve the efficiency of the design and construction delivery process. Risk? Efficiency? Delivery Process?... not mention Cost Control, Schedule and Constructability, are foreign concepts to the predominant design studio culture.

Integrated practices and integrated project delivery are clearly “hot” topics in the design and construction industry today. They are a response ...

Building Capability For Disaster Resilience, Lynn Crawford, Craig Langston, Bhishna Bajracharya

Mirvac School of Sustainable Development

All levels of government recognise the widespread devastation of communities by natural or other disasters. They have responded with emergency management arrangements and policies to enhance government and community capacity to anticipate, withstand and recover from disastrous events. Although the construction industry has a significant role to play, particularly in recovery and reconstruction, it has not generally been considered as a key stakeholder in building capability for disaster resilience. One barrier to more active involvement of the construction industry in disaster response and management is that traditional methods of construction project management have been criticised as too time consuming and ...

Implementing Building Information Modeling In Public Works Projects In Ireland, Barry Mcauley, Alan V. Hore, Roger West

Conference papers

The Irish State in recent years has suffered huge financial losses in the public works sector, which has now pushed the Irish Government to explore new ways of controlling cost. This background lead to the introduction of the Capital Works Management Framework in 2007 which aimed to support the certainty of outcome in terms of cost and quality, as well as improved risk management, through the implementation of fixed price contracts. In order to successfully compete within this framework it is recommended by the authors, that Irish Government moves towards the legal mandating of BIM. This can ensure a greater ...